Recent Improvements in Japanese Wheat Varieties

In Japan, the breeding of new wheat varieties for use in bread, Chinese noodles, as well as other noodles, is an urgently required objective if domestic wheat production and food self-sufficiency ratio have to increase. Many molecular markers are now available; those used in wheat breeding programs in Japan are generally to assess the amylose content, dough strength, grain hardness, wheat yellow mosaic virus, preharvest sprouting, and Fusarium head blight. Hard and extra-strong wheat varieties have been released using marker-assisted selection.