Increasing the production of winter bread wheat by creating and introducing high-yielding, environmentally friendly varieties of the new generation into production is a regular task for modern breeding, and a guarantee of overcoming the global problem of food security. Preliminary modeling of the new variety genotype for different soil and climatic zones requires studying the role of individual productivity traits in forming high grain yields. The aim of the research was to determine the yield of modern high-yielding varieties and breeding lines of winter bread wheat under different soil and climatic conditions, and to establish the level of influence of individual productivity factors on its formation. During 2023—2025, 16 genotypes of winter bread wheat of the Lutescens species were studied in ecological trials, with yields in the Forest-Steppe and Steppe zones ranging from 95.7 to 146.3 and 68.4 to 107.3 cwt/ha, respectively. The Gentleman variety and breeding lines UK 126/20 and UK 070/19 consistently maintained their leadership in terms of yield when grown in different soil and climatic zones of Ukraine. Their morphological, physiological, and biometric characteristics can be used as a basis for developing a new variety model. The yield of high-yielding winter bread wheat varieties under various soil and climatic conditions directly depends on the grain filling of the ear and the weight of grain from the ear and plant. The highest yield indices in the Forest-Steppe zone were characteristic to varieties and breeding lines that are semi-dwarf—short-stemmed in terms of stem length, and in the Steppe zone — short-stemmed—medium-stemmed. Despite the important role of increased number of productive stems, ear length, and 1,000-grain weight in producing high yields of individual varieties and breeding lines, selection based solely on the biometric indices of these structural elements may be ineffective. Further breeding and genetic research should focus on creating and selecting winter wheat genotypes with high grain productivity per ear and plant, which should be a priority at all stages of the breeding process and an important component in the development of a genetic model for a new generation of winter bread wheat varieties.
Keywords: Triticum aestivum L., structural elements of yield, grain number in the ear, ecological plasticity, grain productivity, correlation dependence
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