Recent Advances in Speed Breeding for Rapid Wheat Development

Abstract

The development of wheat through speed breeding is now a matter of using an artificial system that changes with the seasons in nature and takes many years for generation turnover, population advancement, and early selection to happen biologically viable again in breeding. It was found out from the pioneer experiments of speed breeding in wheat that applying extra light for longer periods, maintaining normal room temperatures, collecting seeds when they are immature, and employing the single-seed descent approach could make multiplication of generations in a given annum. The current wave of work goes further. It includes speed vernalization techniques for winter wheat; breeder-friendly, low-energy modified glasshouse systems; high-throughput vernalization protocols that are compatible with a wider range of winter germplasm; spectral optimization strategies that tune light intensity and the red: far-red ratio; and close links with marker-assisted backcrossing, genomic selection, doubled haploids, and resistance gene cloning. Speed breeding is therefore no longer just a way to obtain generations quickly; it is changing the whole pipeline through which wheat is developed. This review covers the improvements made in speed breeding for rapid wheat development from 2018 onwards, especially between 2022 and 2025, with a focus on practical application in wheat. It first presents the physiological and engineering foundations of fast generation advance in wheat, and then looks at the new platforms introduced for both spring and winter germplasm. Next, it examines how phenotyping, marker-assisted introgression, genomic prediction, gene discovery, and rapid line fixation have been integrated into speed breeding. In the literature examined, one can see that initially, people thought that the best approach was to accelerate everything to the maximum speed possible, but now they have realized that this approach does not make sense from a biological perspective and is also very difficult to apply. It can be derived from the review that there is a need for speed breeding in wheat programmes, although it should serve as an addition to and not a substitute for field breeding, which can be considered incomplete without it. The review anticipates the following developments: adaptive lighting recipes; improved approaches to dormancy, winter habit; integration; cost-effective; non-specialized facility accessible rapid generation advance even in; digital phenomics predictive breeding; and development of systems.

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