Drought tolerance of wheat was tested by a mobile automatic rain shelter (MARS) in a conventional pedigree breeding program of Cereal Research Non-Profit Ltd. Co. (CRC) in Szeged. The MARS, parallel with ideal water supply gives a good chance for field testing of relatively high number of genotypes for drought tolerance. Using the automatic rain shelter which was installed in 2006, advanced lines of winter wheat could be tested for tolerance to water shortages under irrigated (control treatment) and under dry conditions. Withdrawal of water caused significant effects on yield and yield components and raised the canopy temperature of the genotypes tested. We have developed a novel breeding system by which we can routinely select for drought resistance. The methods applied can easily be incorporated into our working pedigree breeding system.
