Accelerating wheat breeding, from Toluca in Mexico to the world

In Mexico, a project has been completed to develop new elite parental lines of wheat with increased resistance to diseases. These lines can be used in breeding programs to quickly introduce specific, targeted traits, like ready-made ingredients in a larger recipe.

“Deep scoping rapid-cycle recurrent genomic selection to accelerate the breeding pipeline for quantitative disease resistance in wheat” 

The project targeted two major fungal diseases, septoria tritici blotch (STB) and spot blotch (SB), whose incidence is increasing due to climate change, threatening wheat production and food security in Southeast Asia and Africa. 

Developing resistance to these diseases is particularly challenging, as it relies on the combined effect of multiple genes, resulting in a complex, quantitative resistance that is difficult to achieve through traditional breeding methods. 

Traditionally, breeders wait several years to evaluate plant performance in the field before selecting parents for the next generation. The project introduced a faster, data-driven approach: instead of waiting for field results, breeders use DNA data to predict performance and make earlier decisions, a method known as genomic selection.  

This approach shortens breeding cycles. As a result, breeders can produce multiple generations within the same time frame – ultimately delivering resistant wheat varieties to farmers faster, while having greater impact on food security over time.  

For the two targeted diseases, the work has delivered a transformative step-change in resistance. 

CIMMYT experimental station in Toluca, Mexico, has ideal conditions for selecting genotypes that possess resistance to foliar diseases. Credit: CIMMYT / Alfonso Cortés.

Why does this matter? 

The project served as proof of content, where results can be extrapolated to other wheat breeding programs. Now:  

• Parents can be recycled after just 3 years — down from 5-7 years; 
• Favourable genes accumulate faster, accelerating genetic progress; 
• Breeding cycles are shorter, ultimately delivering improved varieties sooner. 

“This new concept that we introduced in the project is really getting adopted and accepted by breeders. I think a mindset change definitely has been happening. For me, that’s the most important”, explains Susanne Dreisigacker, Wheat Molecular Geneticist and the Project Lead at CIMMYT.  

“The mindset before was that you cannot select parents in a breeding program early without having good phenotyping. What we basically did here is that we only genotyped. We selected the best lines based on the genotype and recycle. Even in the mainstream breeding program now, breeders are going to recycle parents also based on the genotype, much earlier. And that, I think is a change of mindset now, that I don’t need to have 2, 3, 4 years of phenotype or field evaluations to use a certain line as a parent.”

A change of mindset

Dreisigacker’s team is already building on their success with a new project targeting specific diseases in key regions. In South Asia, the focus is on Spot Blotch, while in South Africa, it’s Septoria. “What I expect is that as these parent lines go into mainstream breeding, we can deliver better products. It’s like baking a cake with a ready-made preparation. You know you don’t need to worry about the dough because it has what it needs, so you can fully focus on adding the rest of the ingredients,” she says.

Feedback from colleagues has been encouraging. “Now the response is, ‘Oh yes, we have to do that for other diseases too.’ Support comes from different angles — our pathologies team is doing the disease screening, and they are fully committed because they can see the improvement.” 

This reflects a real shift in thinking. “Conceptually, acceptance wasn’t there before. Now, it’s completely different. There’s much more awareness that this is possible, and definitely more interest to follow up.”

Susanne Dreisigacker presenting the outcomes of the project at a field visit in Toluca, August 2025. Credit: CIMMYT.

CGIAR is now leading the global development of this technique, with international interest from Universities and Advanced Research Institutes. Training events have showcased the technique to increase knowledge and build knowledge within the CGIAR-partner breeding network. 

Looking ahead, future funding will be crucial to continue modernizing national partners’ capacity for high-quality breeding; invest in under-resourced national breeding programs to enable access to advanced quantitative genetics; expand the application of this approach to additional crops; and address complex climate challenges that require the accumulation of multiple adaptive traits.

About Crops to End Hunger

CtEH commenced in 2018 as funder led project. The current Phase III project is funded by GIZ, modernizing breeding programs and networks, in partnership with National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES). The program invested in upgrading facilities on breeding stations, building staff capacity to use more advanced equipment and breeding techniques, and developing foundational tools required to accelerate crop breeding. The modernization of breeding and increased breeding efficiencies will enable new, improved varieties to be developed quicker, and made available to smallholders sooner. 

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Resources

• Download the program brochure. 
• Paper: Sidhant Chaudhary, Mustafa Zakieh, Mukesh Dubey, Dan Funck Jensen, Laura Grenville-Briggs, Aakash Chawade, Magnus Karlsson, Plant genotype-specific modulation of Clonostachys rosea-mediated biocontrol of septoria tritici blotch disease in wheat, BMC Plant Biology, 10.1186/s12870-025-06620-9, 25, 1, (2025). 
• News: From Gene to Impact: Science and Partnerships to Transform Agriculture 

Main image: Lesions on wheat caused by Septoria tritici blotch on wheat in Toluca, Mexico. Credit: CIMMYT / Alfonso Cortés.