Freezing Tolerance in the Triticeae

Species of the Triticeae tribe of the Poaceae, such as wheat and barley, able to acclimate to and to tolerate frost, are one of the best models for studying freezing tolerance in herbaceous, nonwoody plants. This chapter reviews in detail the genetic and genomic knowledge accumulated over the last twenty years in these model species, in terms of genetic loci and sequence variation able to confer higher tolerance to frost. Genomic selection (GS) could be particularly useful for accumulating durable (quantitative) disease resistance quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in wheat, as proposed by Rutkoski and colleagues for stem rust, where the multigenic nature of adult plant resistance hampers the efficiency of MAS-based pyramiding. Lastly, the use of genetic resources, as well as new genomic tools for producing freezing tolerant varieties, is discussed.