Ignacio Solís

Triticale is a cereal that currently has a cultivated global area of approximately 3.8 Mha. It is widely used as a feed and forage crop. Although winter triticale cultivars are planted in Poland, Germany and Belarus (the main producers), a significant portion of their cultivation is carried out in the Mediterranean basin using spring cultivars. Spain and Türkiye are two examples of the success of this crop in terms of promotion, breeding, and expansion. Thus, in 2022/23, 280,000 hectares of triticale were planted in Spain, while 100,000 hectares were planted in Türkiye, ranking 5th and 8th in the world, respectively. Current triticale cultivars have high grain and/or forage yield. Furthermore, dual-purpose cultivars are available and can be intercropped with legumes, which increases their possibilities in the field. Triticale competes well with weeds and is resistant to many diseases. It performs well in acidic soils, and it is tolerant to drought, conditions common in the Mediterranean basin. In the future, funding for spring triticale breeding programs (which are scarce and declining) should be maintained, and projects to improve agronomic techniques and publicize the advantages of this crop could be implemented. Furthermore, the use of triticale for human food could expand in the region, especially in MENA countries.

Barley has been and continues to be a crucial field crop in Spain, with approximately 2.4 million hectares planted annually and a production ranging 7–10 million tons. It is a crop well adapted to shallow soils and the harsh winters of the high central plains of the country. Traditionally, animal feed has been the main use for this crop, while an important brewing industry developed throughout the 20th century. This article reviews the most important milestones of this crop in Spain, including its uses, historical yield, barley price, and barley–wheat price relationship. With respect to the collection of Spanish landraces currently preserved in the CRF (Plant Genetic Resources Center) seed bank, two main genetic groups distributed in northern and southern Spain were distinguished. The landraces of both groups are mostly six-row and winter types, but they differ in vernalization requirements, which are lower in southern landraces. The trends in barley production, the most planted cultivars in Spain over the last 70 years, and the past and present-day breeding programs in the country are also reviewed.

Effective mitigation of the current threat from yellow rust and the potential threat from stem rust to wheat production in the south of Spain requires the characterization of the lineages/races currently present in the region. Results from this study clearly indicated that the main yellow rust lineages currently present in the south of Spain are PstS10, PstS13, and PstS14, to which several widely grown commercial cultivars are resistant. Even though stem rust is not yet present during the regular cropping season, the main lineages/races Clade IV-B and Clade IV-F, were identified, much like in most of Europe and parts of North Africa. The evaluation of differential series and special breeding lines with known genes under local conditions has indicated the availability of several genetic options that could be used in breeding/selection programs to provide effective levels of resistance to either disease in the future. However, in undertaking these efforts, it is important to consider not only the lineages currently present locally but also resistance options effective against lineages/races that are rapidly developing elsewhere and could very likely reach the south of Spain in the near future.

En este artículo se pretende conocer la historia de la fabricación y consumo de pastas alimenticias en España. Históricamente, la producción de pasta era muy pequeña (fideos principalmente) y se concentraba en el este del país. Sin embargo, a partir del último tercio del siglo XIX la producción de pasta (en pequeñas fábricas y semiartesanal) se incrementa en todo el país. La mayoría de las fábricas estaban en Cataluña, aunque también había muchas en Andalucía e Islas Baleares. Después de la Guerra Civil la fabricación y el consumo de pastas se volvió a incrementar nuevamente. Desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX comienza un proceso de concentración de la producción en grandes empresas que emplean métodos industriales, mientras que muchas empresas pequeñas y medianas van desapareciendo. En 2020, las cuatro empresas más importantes concentraron el 90% de la producción nacional de pastas, cuando en 1995 ese porcentaje había sido del 68%. En la actualidad, las grandes empresas siguen manteniendo el control, al mismo tiempo que ha aumentado el consumo de pasta fresca envasada.

Leaf rust is a major wheat disease in southern Spain, where durum wheat is an important crop. Until the 2019/2020 season, this disease was effectively managed, as the most widely planted cultivars in southern Spain had effective resistance genes. A problem arose in the spring of 2020, when every farm field and durum wheat trial examined displayed leaf rust symptoms. Leaves had few but large uredinial pustules, different from those of the normal leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina, and telia developed rapidly after only a few days. The symptoms clearly fitted with P. tritici-duri, another wheat leaf rust species already reported in the western Mediterranean Basin. This species is not new in southern Spain but has never been observed at such high severity on almost every durum wheat cultivar grown in that region. Leaf rust severity was assessed in durum wheat field trials in the 2020, 2021 and 2022 growing seasons in four provinces of southern Spain. During 2020 and 2021, 13 single pustule isolates of leaf rust were also collected from different cultivars of durum wheat. Inoculation of the isolates on a differential host set showed that four different races were present, two being of P. tritici-duri. Only cultivar Calero showed consistent resistance to the races of P. tritici-duri employed in this study.

Durum wheat is grown globally on 13.5 million ha in 2020/2021, which amounts to 6.2% of the wheat area. It is assumed that in the past it was more important, but the extent of that importance is unknown. In this work, a historical estimation of the durum wheat area globally was carried out, based on data of the main cultivating countries. Many of the data from the earliest period were based on percentage to all wheat. During the nineteenth century, the percentage of durum wheat to all wheat globally was around 14–16%. However, throughout the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, in America (USA, Canada, Argentina), Asia (Russia, China, India), and Australia, new land was sown with bread wheat, and therefore the percentage of durum wheat fell steadily to 7–9% from 1950 to 2005, and to 6–7% since then. For many years, Russia was the country with more durum wheat cultivation, with around six million ha in the period 1910–1940. Turkey, Italy, Algeria, and India were also big historical players regarding cultivation of this crop. Currently, Canada, Algeria, Italy, and Turkey have the largest durum wheat acreage. The main breeding activities and the future of durum wheat are discussed.

From 1755 to 1801 in Spain, many articles and reports were written about common bunt, a seed-borne plague that was difficult to control at the time. The objective of the study is to better understand this plague and the relationship between historical rainfall indexes and years of higher reported outbreaks. We compared documentary sources on extreme rain events and annual series of wheat prices in four locations (Murcia, Seville, Toledo, and Zamora) with data from articles about the bunt plague. Increased severity of common bunt in wheat coincided with a concentration of such events, during a period of severe climatic irregularity known as the Maldà Anomaly. However, the cause-and-effect relationship for proxies of historical weather, price volatility and bunt plague was only significant in Seville. A complementary factor that explains the abundance of literature was access to agricultural articles and books from France, where the common bunt also existed. The first experiments to understand the plague and how to control it were performed there. These events are framed in the Spanish Enlightenment and early physiocratic ideas advocating the importance of agriculture in maintaining the wealth of a country.

From 1755 to 1801 in Spain, many articles and reports were written about common bunt, a seed-borne plague that was difficult to control at the time. The objective of the study is to better understand this plague and the relationship between historical rainfall indexes and years of higher reported outbreaks. We compared documentary sources on extreme rain events and annual series of wheat prices in four locations (Murcia, Seville, Toledo, and Zamora) with data from articles about the bunt plague. Increased severity of common bunt in wheat coincided with a concentration of such events, during a period of severe climatic irregularity known as the Maldà Anomaly. However, the cause-and-effect relationship for proxies of historical weather, price volatility and bunt plague was only significant in Seville. A complementary factor that explains the abundance of literature was access to agricultural articles and books from France, where the common bunt also existed. The first experiments to understand the plague and how to control it were performed there. These events are framed in the Spanish Enlightenment and early physiocratic ideas advocating the importance of agriculture in maintaining the wealth of a country.

Final grain production and quality in durum wheat are affected by biotic and abiotic stresses. The association mapping (AM) approach is useful for dissecting the genetic control of quantitative traits, with the aim of increasing final wheat production under stress conditions. In this study, we used AM analyses to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying agronomic and quality traits in a collection of 294 elite durum wheat lines from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), grown under different water regimes over four growing seasons. Thirty-seven significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were detected for sedimentation volume (SV) and thousand kernel weight (TKW), located on chromosomes 1B and 2A, respectively. The QTL loci found were then confirmed with several AM analyses, which revealed 12 sedimentation index (SDS) MTAs and two additional loci for SV (4A) and yellow rust (1B). A candidate gene analysis of the identified genomic regions detected a cluster of 25 genes encoding blue copper proteins in chromosome 1B, with homoeologs in the two durum wheat subgenomes, and an ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase gene. On chromosome 2A, several genes related to photosynthetic processes and metabolic pathways were found in proximity to the markers associated with TKW. These results are of potential use for subsequent application in marker-assisted durum wheat-breeding programs.

Leaf rust is a foliar disease caused by the fungus Puccinia triticina that may severely reduce durum wheat yield. Resistance to this pathogen is common in modern durum germplasm but is frequently based on Lr72 and Lr14a. After accounts of races with virulence to Lr14a gene in France in 2000, the present study reports the detection in 2013 for the first time of a new race with virulence to Lr14a and Lr72. The aim of this work was to characterize the virulence pattern of four Spanish isolates with virulence to Lr14a, and to discuss the consequences of this presence. Rusted leaves from cultivars ‘Don Jaime’ (Lr14a) and ‘Gallareta’ (Lr72) were collected in 2013 in the field at two Spanish sites, one in the south (near Cadiz) and another in the north (near Girona). Spores from single pustule for each cultivar and site were multiplied on susceptible cultivar ‘Don Rafael’. Then, the four isolates were inoculated on a set of 19 isogenic lines Thatcher to characterize their virulence spectrum. All isolates presented the same virulence pattern. They were virulent on both Lr14a and Lr72 and the race was named DBB/BS. This race was very similar to those reported in 2009-11, but with added virulence to Lr14a. The resistance based on Lr14a has therefore been overcome in Spain, by a new race that has likely emerged via stepwise mutation from the local predominating races. This information is important to guide breeders in their breeding programmes and gene deployment strategies.