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Developing climate-resilient crop varieties with better performance under variable environments is essential to ensure food security in a changing climate. This process is significantly influenced, among other factors, by genotype × environment (G × E) interactions. With the objective of identifying high-yielding and stable genotypes, 20 elite durum wheat lines were evaluated in 24 environments (location–season combination) during 5 crop seasons (2010/11–2014/15). The REML (residual maximum likelihood)-predicted means of grain yield of 16 genotypes that were common across all environments ranged from 3522 kg/ha in G201 to 4132 kg/ha in G217. Results of additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis showed that genotypes (G), environments (E), and genotype × environment interaction (GEI) significantly affected grain yield. From the total sum of squares due to treatments (G + E + GEI), E attributed the highest proportion of the variation (90.0%), followed by GEI (8.7%) and G (1.3%). Based on the first four AMMI selections for grain yield in the 24 environments, genotypes G217, G219, G211, and G213 were selected in 23, 12, 11, and 9 environments, respectively. The genotype and genotype × environment biplot (GGE) biplot polygon view showed that the environments were separated into three mega-environments. The winning genotypes in these mega-environments were G217, G214, and G204. Genotypes G212, G220, G217, G215, and G213 showed low AMMI stability values (ASV), whereas genotypes G217, G220, G212, G211, and G219 showed low genotype selection index (GSI), indicating their better stability and adaptability to the test environments. The results indicated that genotypes G217, G219, G211, G213, and G220 combined both high grain yield and stability/adaptability under dry but irrigated and heat-prone environments. An in-depth analysis of the superior genotypes could help better understand the stress-adaptive traits that could be targeted to further increase durum wheat yield and stability under the changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) high temperature (≥30°C) during grain filling leads to considerable reduction in grain yield. We studied 400 multiple synthetic derivatives (MSD) lines to examine the genetic variability of heat stress-adaptive traits and to identify new sources of heat tolerance to be used in wheat breeding programs. The experiment was arranged in an augmented randomized complete block design in four environments in Sudan. A wide range of genetic variability was found in most of the traits in all environments. For all traits examined, we found MSD lines that showed better performance than their parent 'Norin 61' and two adapted Sudanese cultivars. Using the heat tolerance efficiency, we identified 13 highly heat-tolerant lines and several lines with intermediate heat tolerance and good yield potential. We also identified lines with alleles that can be used to increase wheat yield potential. Our study revealed that the use of the MSD population is an efficient way to explore the genetic variation in Ae. tauschii for wheat breeding and improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]