GSAS · Genomic Strategies Against STB disease of wheat
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-07-16 → 2021-01-13
- EU contribution
- €175,866
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Genomic Strategies Against STB disease of wheat
Wheat is a primary tillage crop in Ireland and remains the most important cereal crop within the EU. Annually huge yield losses were caused by Zymoseptoria tritici, the causal agent of septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease. Under favourable condition, STB can cause up to 50% yield losses. Farmers are heavily reliant on multiple applications of fungicides throughout the cropping season, where control of STB accounting for more than 70% of annual fungicide usage in Europe, the use of which costs the sector over €1bn per annum. Furthermore, emerging resistance to fungicides and ambitions to reduce pesticide usage in Europe requires that greater emphasis is placed on identifying novel sources of resistance to STB. Identifying sources of resistance can be accelerated using marker-assisted recurrent selection strategies and/or genome-wide selection (genomic selection, GS). Experimental wheat populations such as the multi-parent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) are a powerful resource to dissect the genetic control of agriculturally important traits. The overall goal of this action was to harness novel sources of resistance to STB that may help reduce dependence on fungicides. . In the present study, the NIAB Diverse MAGIC (NDM) population, comprising of more than 500 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from sixteen founder varieties released between 1935-2004 was investigated for STB resistance under high disease pressure environments. Genomic regions associated with resistance were identified and the linked genetic markers may support rapid selection of favorable alleles for the breeding of new wheat cultivars with improved STB resistance.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
A primary crop in Ireland, wheat is the most important cereal within the EU. Zymoseptoria tritici, the causal agent of septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease, continuously threatens Europe’s wheat crop causing loses of up to 50%, if left untreated. The absence of commercial varieties with adequate STB resistance means the sector is wholly dependent on fungicides to offset STB, with control costs >€1bn pa. This chemical dependency has driven the appearance of fungicide resistant strains of Z. tritici. In addition, EU legislation has removed several fungicides due to environmental concerns. In short, the European wheat sector has an unsustainable future unless greater effort is made to identify durable sources of resistance to STB. This is where new breeding methodologies (e.g. genomic selection, GS) can assist traditional breeding initiatives. GS is a form of marker assisted selection that simultaneously estimates all loci, haplotype or marker effects across the entire genome to calculate Genomic Estimated Breeding Values (GEBVs). GEBVs are then used to select individuals of interest for advancement in the breeding cycle. This proposal will apply a GS strategy to a unique population (>600) of wheat lines (DiverseMAGIC, NIAB), that are firstly phenotyped in the presence of natural field-borne STB inoculum. Taking advantage of NIAB resources (35K SNP data, exome capture, genetic maps), this action will combine genotype and field phenotype data so that relevant QTL associated with contrasting STB resistant profiles can be identified. In parallel, an in-house gene editing system will be employed to edit several gene sequences that have demonstrated to be STB responsive based on previously accumulated RNAseq data. Multi-disciplinary in nature, we envisage this proposal (plus secondment) will identify novel sources of resistance to STB disease that thereafter will be integrated into European wheat breeding programmes through existing networks with this project’s partners.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- TEAGASC - AGRICULTURE AND FOOD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY · CarlowCoordinatorIreland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union