Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most widely grown food crops in the world, providing on average 20% of the total calories in human consumption. Population growth, climate change, and available arable land along with biotic and abiotic influences endanger wheat production worldwide. It seems inevitable that the next—in fact, already ongoing—long-term humanity challenge will be to strengthen activities aiming to ensure sufficient food supply. One of the most direct solutions to these challenges in wheat will be to increase productivity through the creation of new enhanced wheat cultivars with increased/optimized yield and quality potential along with improved response against diverse biotic and abiotic stressors. Implementation of an integrative and interdisciplinary approach will be necessary to address this task successfully.

In this Special Issue, we welcome original research, latest studies, reviews, and achievements regarding advances in wheat breeding, improvement of yield and quality, stability and adaptability of wheat cultivars/germplasm, wheat response to biotic and abiotic stress/production factors, advances in the area of wheat intended for special purposes, as well as evaluation and implementation of wheat genetic resources in wheat breeding.

Dr. Krešimir Dvojković
Prof. Dr. Hrvoje Šarčević
Dr. Aleksandra Torbica
Dr. Daniela Horvat
Guest Editors

Keywords

• wheat
• wheat breeding
• grain yield and quality assessments
• wheat response to biotic and abiotic influences
• stability and adaptability of wheat cultivars/germplasm
• wheat for special purposes
• wheat genetic resources