Potential of Wild Relatives of Wheat: Ideal Genetic Resources for Future Breeding Programs

Abstract

Among cereal crops, wheat has been identified as a major source for human food consumption. Wheat breeders require access to new genetic diversity resources to satisfy the demands of a growing human population for more food with a high quality that can be produced in variable environmental conditions. The close relatives of domesticated wheats represent an ideal gene pool for the use of breeders. The genera Aegilops and Triticum are known as the main gene pool of domesticated wheat, including numerous species with different and interesting genomic constitutions. According to the literature, each wild relative harbors useful alleles which can induce resistance to various environmental stresses. Furthermore, progress in genetic and biotechnology sciences has provided accurate information regarding the phylogenetic relationships among species, which consequently opened avenues to reconsider the potential of each wild relative and to provide a context for how we can employ them in future breeding programs. In the present review, we have sought to represent the level of genetic diversity among the wild relatives of wheat, as well as the breeding potential of each wild species that can be used in wheat-breeding programs.