WHEAT BREEDERS PERSPECTIVES ON GENETIC DIVERSITY AND GERMPLASM USE - FINDINGS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL SURVEY

Wheat breeders working in national wheat research programmes around th e world, and particularly those in developing countries, are concerned that in the future scientific advance may be limited because wheat ge netic diversity is not available for their use. Those surveyed use adv anced lines and released varieties more often than other types of germ plasm in their crosses, but they use wild relatives and landraces in t he pursuit of specific breeding objectives, such as disease resistance , tolerance of abiotic stress, and grain quality. CIMMYT germplasm is used at least as often in breeding for disease resistance as for yield . The crossing blocks in developing countries contain larger sections of landrace materials and lines from CIMMYT International Nurseries, a nd as a result, may be more genetically diverse in terms of types and geographical origin of parent materials than those used in high-income countries, or the FSU and Eastern Europe. All of the wheat breeders s urveyed in high-income countries stated that their country uses variet al protection, as compared with only half of those in developing count ries. Responses suggest that the establishment of global regimes for v arietal protection would reduce the exchange of useful materials among developing nations as well as between developing and industrialized n ations.