Abstract:
Breeding wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) for high nitrogen use efficiency while maintaining adequate
yield, is widely accepted as one of the approaches to maximise farmers’ revenue and minimise pollution
risk. However, due to random hybridization events during evaluation and selective breeding for high
yield, genetic diversity of existing bread wheat is narrowed down. The present study was conducted to
investigate the nitrogen use efficiency and its components of ancient wheat species, a potential source to
expand the genetic diversity of bread wheat. Three field experiments were carried out in 2012, 2013 and
2014 at Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham, UK. Ten genotypes belonging to einkorn,
emmer, spelt and modern bread wheat were used as genetic materials of the experiments and three
nitrogen levels were compared. Nitrogen uptake efficiency, nitrogen utilisation efficiency and nitrogen
use efficiency were calculated at harvest. Nitrogen use efficiency among genotypes varied significantly
and bread wheat recorded the highest value followed by spelt, emmer and einkorn. However, in general,
nitrogen uptake efficiency was high in emmer and spelt compared to bread wheat. Nitrogen utilisation
efficiency of bread wheat was always higher than ancient wheat genotypes resulting in high nitrogen use
efficiency. Nitrogen supply has a negative relationship with nitrogen uptake efficiency. According to the
results, it can be concluded that ancient wheat genotypes uptake more nitrogen hence high nitrogen
uptake efficiency when compared to modern bread wheat. However, the ability to utilise nitrogen in the
plants to develop grains is high in modern bread wheat.
