Genetic Diversity and Stability of Performance of Wheat Population Varieties Developed by Participatory Breeding

In France, a Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) project on bread wheat, involving farmers, facilitators and researchers, has led to the development of heterogeneous populations whose within-variety genetic diversity is expected to confer the ability to adapt to farmers’ practices and environments. In this article, they studied the stability and local adaptation of ten of these farmers’ populations as well as two commercial varieties in relation to their within-variety genetic diversity. Their results demonstrate the wide adaptive potential of PPB populations, highlighting the importance of seed exchange networks for agrobiodiversity management and use.  The benefits of genetic diversity for stability over time, which is of great interest to farmers, is emphasized.