De novo domestication—the modification of domestication genes in crop wild relatives via genome editing—is an approach for harnessing the beneficial genetic diversity of crop wild relatives. A prerequisite for de novo domestication is phenotyping to identify genetic materials suitable for cultivation in the respective environment. Taxa from the wheat genepool (Triticum aestivum, Triticum durum, Triticum monococcum) are a staple food; these taxa comprise wild relatives of different ploidy levels. The diploid Triticum boeoticum and Triticum urartu and the tetraploid Triticum dicoccoides and Triticum araraticum harbor desirable traits such as high grain quality and abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. Hence, they are candidates for de novo domestication. Here, we grew 111 wild wheats and 38 landraces originating predominantly from the Fertile Crescent and six modern wheat cultivars in a field in Giessen, Germany, to evaluate their environmental adaptability to the central European climate and to identify potential candidates and target traits for de novo domestication. We demonstrate that several wild taxa are suitable for cultivation in the central European environment and that they have distinct characteristics that need to be modified during de novo domestication. The normalized difference vegetation index and the thermal time to heading and flowering indicated excellent adaptability of some wheat wild relatives to central European conditions. The values of yield parameters such as grain weight per plant, number of tillers, and thousand kernel weight were lower in the wild wheats than in the landraces. Therefore, these traits should be targeted for improvement during the de novo domestication of wild wheats.

中文翻译：

---

小麦野生近缘种从头驯化的表型和目标性状鉴定

从头驯化——通过基因组编辑修改作物野生近缘种的驯化基因——是一种利用作物野生近缘种有益遗传多样性的方法。从头驯化的先决条件是进行表型分析，以确定适合在各自环境中培养的遗传物质。来自小麦基因库的分类单元（普通小麦、硬粒小麦、单球小麦）是主食；这些类群包含不同倍性水平的野生近缘种。二倍体Triticum boeoticum和Triticum urartu以及四倍体Triticum dicoccoides和Triticum araraticum具有理想的性状，例如高谷物品质以及非生物和生物胁迫耐受性。因此，它们是从头驯化的候选者。在这里，我们在德国吉森的一块田地里种植了 111 种野生小麦和 38 种主要源自新月沃地的地方品种以及 6 个现代小麦品种，以评估它们对中欧气候的环境适应性，并确定潜在候选者和从头开始的目标性状驯化。我们证明了几种野生类群适合在中欧环境中种植，并且它们具有需要在从头驯化过程中进行修改的独特特征。归一化植被指数差异以及抽穗和开花的热时间表明一些小麦野生近缘种对中欧条件具有出色的适应性。野生小麦的单株粒重、分蘖数、千粒重等产量参数值均低于地方品种。因此，在野生小麦的从头驯化过程中应有针对性地改善这些性状。