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Context: Untapped wheat germplasm is conserved globally in genebanks. Evaluating it for grain quality and yield will help achieve nutritional and food security. Aims: We aimed to evaluate the Indian National Genebank bread wheat core collection for grain quality, phenology and yield, to identify potential donor germplasm. Methods: 1485 accessions were grown at three locations in India during winter 2015–2016 to evaluate test weight, grain protein content, sedimentation value (SV), days to spike emergence, days to maturity, grain yield and thousand-grain weight (TGW). Key results: Best linear unbiased estimates indicated mean protein of 13.3%, 14.7%, and 13.0% and yield of 73.0 g/m, 70.9 g/m and 66.6 g/m at Ludhiana, Pune, and Varanasi locations, respectively. The SV ranged from 26.6–65.6 mL and 17.7–66.6 mL at the Ludhiana and Pune locations, respectively. The top 10 accessions were identified for all the studied traits. Six high protein accessions, with consistent protein of more than 15% along with moderate Thousand-grain and test weights were further validated and assessed for stability across environments. Grain protein content was correlated negatively with thousand-grain weight and yield, but positively with days to maturity and spike emergence. Conclusion: The identified accessions with high trait values could be used in future breeding programmes to develop high yielding biofortified cultivars to address protein malnutrition and also cultivars with suitable end-product quality. Implications: The diversity in a core collection can be exploited to develop modern high yielding bread wheat cultivars with higher grain protein content and suitable end-product quality. To eliminate hunger and malnutrition, genetic resources for cereals with high grain protein content, grain yield, and other quality traits are needed. A diverse and representative set of bread wheat genetic resources is extracted from national genebank of India. We evaluated this diverse core collection across multiple environments to find novel and stable high yielding germplasm with superior grain quality for further use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Powdery mildew (PM), caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, poses a significant threat to wheat production, necessitating the development of genetically resistant varieties for long-term control. Therefore, exploring genetic architecture of PM in wheat to uncover important genomic regions is an important area of wheat research. In recent years, the utilization of meta-QTL (MQTL) analysis has gained prominence as an essential tool for unraveling the complex genetic architecture underlying complex quantitative traits. The aim of this research was to conduct a QTL meta-analysis to pinpoint the specific genomic regions in wheat responsible for governing PM resistance. This study integrated 222 QTLs from 33 linkage-based studies using a consensus map with 54,672 markers. The analysis revealed 39 MQTLs, refined to 9 high-confidence MQTLs (hcMQTLs) with confidence intervals of 0.49 to 12.94 cM. The MQTLs had an average physical interval of 41.00 Mb, ranging from 0.000048 Mb to 380.71 Mb per MQTL. Importantly, 18 MQTLs co-localized with known resistance genes like Pm2, Pm3, Pm8, Pm21, Pm38, and Pm41. The study identified 256 gene models within hcMQTLs, providing potential targets for marker-assisted breeding and genomic prediction programs to enhance PM resistance. These MQTLs would serve as a foundation for fine mapping, gene isolation, and functional genomics studies, facilitating a deeper understanding of molecular mechanisms. The identification of candidate genes opens up exciting possibilities for the development of PM-resistant wheat varieties after validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]