Abstract

Conventional wheat breeding programs aim at developing high yielding cultivars suitable for sowing under stress conditions and poor soils especially in newly reclaimed deserts.  The objective of the current study was to develop high yielding and early maturing bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) lines adapted to grow in old and new reclaimed desert soils of Egypt.  Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) markers were used to detect the genetic variability at molecular level among the new lines as compared to their parents. The promising five lines were evaluated for two years at three locations that is Assiut, Qena and Kafer EL-Shekh districts of Egypt. Grain yield differed significantly among the evaluated wheat lines.  Inbred lines Assiut-1, Assiut-2 and Assiut-3 gave significantly higher grain yield as compared with check variety (Giza-168).EST markers showed that the parents and the studied lines had a wide range of genetic variation. Consequently, the EST analysis could be used to detect the genetic variability among parents and the studied lines.

Key words: Bread wheat, expressed sequence tags (EST), grain yield.