Did Wheat Breeding Simultaneously Improve Grain Yield and Quality of Wheat Cultivars Releasing over the Past 20 Years in China?

Grain yield and quality of wheat are both important components for food security. Great effort has been made in the genetic improvement of wheat grain yield in China. However, wheat grain quality (i.e., protein concentration and protein quality) has received much less attention and is often overlooked in efforts to improve grain yield. A timely summary of the recent process of wheat breeding for increasing yield and quality (which can be used to guide future breeding strategies) is essential but still lacking. This study evaluated the breeding efforts on grain yield and grain quality of 1908 wheat varieties in China over the past two decades, from 2001 to 2020. We found wheat yields show a 0.64-1.03% annual growth in the three-dominant wheat-growing regions in China. At the same time, there was no significant decrease in wheat protein concentration. Genetic yield potential was increased, and the genetic yield gap was closed. High grain yields and better quality can likely be achieved simultaneously by genomic selection in future wheat breeding.