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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LANDRACES (Exploiting the legacy of Central European wheat landraces for improving the ecological adaptation ability of wheat)

Teaser

Summary

The current wheat production is 752 million tonnes with a requirement to reach 858 million tonnes in 2050, due to the predicted growth of the world population from 7.6 billion to 9.6 billion. Today wheat production is facing such challenges as climate change and the narrow genetic diversity of cultivated wheat imposed by the continuous selection for high yielding ability, cannot surmount such difficulties. Wheat landraces represent a valuable basis of genetic diversity and specific adaptation to local environmental conditions according to their place of origin. Their population genetic structure, buffering capacity, and a combination of morpho-physiological traits implies a better tolerance to changing climate conditions and to stress environments than modern cultivars. A significant loss of landrace varieties in both Europe and worldwide already caused a massive loss of crop genetic diversity and charged a substantial risk for future food security.
A large set of Central European wheat landraces were collected during the 1950-60s and preserved in the Tapioszele Gene Bank collection (Hungary) but up till now, it has not been systematically characterized. The collection represents an important legacy and provides a vast and untapped source of genetic variation for wheat improvement.
Our major research aim was to investigate the genetic diversity hidden in the Central European wheat landrace collection and to compare it with modern wheat cultivars. We aimed to correlate the genetic background of every individual landrace to its actual performance and to identify new components to improve wheat quality and stress tolerance. We introduced the most up to date, high throughput DNA Chip genome analysis method to the Hungarian wheat breeding programs to make a direct comparison between the genetic backgrounds of the individual landrace cultivars.
Structure and principal component analysis showed considerable differences among landraces and modern wheat cultivars, thus the Central European wheat landrace collection could be a valuable reservoir of genetic variability suitable for breeders to select genetically distant parents. Pre-breeding programs were initiated with the best performing landraces to introduce their favourable characteristics to modern wheat cultivars by traditional crossing.

Work performed

The present work aimed to provide detailed genotyping and phenotyping data on the complete landrace collection encompassing 200 wheat landraces in parallel to 70 modern wheat cultivars. Genotyping was carried out using a high-density 20K Illumina SNP genotyping array with 17.905 gene-based single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) probes. We analysed the geographic distribution of the genetic variability and chromosome distribution of polymorphic markers. Our results showed that landrace accessions had a greater percentage of polymorphic markers on the homoeologous group 2 and 7 chromosomes. The group 2 and 7 chromosomes contain several genes of great agronomic importance including the photoperiod response genes, semi-dwarfing genes, fungal disease resistance genes and the thousand grain weight gene. Structure and principal component analysis showed considerable differences among landraces and modern wheat cultivars, thus breeders can select genetically distant parents for crossing in breeding.
We characterised the ecological adaptation of landraces and wheat cultivars through measuring phenological and morphological traits under field conditions. Determination of the high temperature and the drought tolerance of the landrace collection was carried out in a controlled chamber test and rain-out shelter, respectively. On the whole set of genotypes evaluation of disease resistance was tested for three pathogens ( leaf rust, stem rust and fusarium head blight) under field conditions in artificially inoculated nurseries. In the case of fusarium head blight, the type II resistance (spreading of the disease in the spike) was also evaluated in green-house tests. The physical properties and the bread-making quality parameters were measured on the whole set of genotypes. Comparisons to modern bread wheat cultivars were presented and Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) was performed with a focus on associations between SNPs and agronomically important traits. Our analysis identified several marker-trait associations for further exploration and validation for marker-assisted breeding.
In the frame of our project, we actively disseminated the results for the scientific and wider community. We have published the results in peer-reviewed open access scientific journals and made poster- and oral presentations in scientific and educational conferences. The wider audience has been informed about the project through the project home page. Other dissemination was Marie Curie Ambassador activates by popularizing Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie actions among students and PostDoc researchers in my institute (Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungary) and high school.

Final results

The present project aimed to characterize and exploit the available genetic diversity in the Central European landrace collection in order to address agricultural challenges presented by climate change. Innovative management of the landrace collection came from the combination of the assessment of physical characteristics by phenotyping and the application of most up-to-date genotyping procedures that maximized the information gained during the project and offered a set of fully characterized genetic resources facilitating selection and improving the efficiency of Todayâ€™s wheat breeding programs.
The use of a new SNP array technology and state-of-the-art bioinformatics enabled the collection of a far larger amount of data than that provided by any previously available method or field assessments alone. The extremely abundant, cost-efficient and highly multiplexed SNP markers were introduced into the wheat improvement procedure as a model, which will open up new possibilities to speed up breeding.
Markers associated with desirable plant performance can narrow down the plant materials to the best-performing genetic resources actually carrying the desirable traits at an early stage of the crossing procedure, subsequently only the selected genotypes would be taken forward to crossings and to produce modern breeding lines. This approach will allow new adaptable varieties of wheat to be developed in a more cost-effective manner and in a shorter period of time.