MANAGING ON-FARM BIOSECURITY RISK IN WHEAT THROUGH PRE-EMPTIVE BREEDING (DAN00174)
PROJECT COMMENCEMENT AND BUDGET
- Project commencement date: 30 June 2013
- Project completion date: 30 June 2018
PARTICIPATING SCIENTISTS
- Dr. Livinus Emebiri – NSW DPI, Project Leader
- Dr. Mui-Keng Tan – Molecular Geneticist, Biosecurity NSW
- Dr. Mustapha El Bouhssini – Entomologist, ICARDA
- Dr. Wuletaw Tadesse – Senior Wheat Breeder, ICARDA
- Dr. Pawan Singh – Head, Pathology, CIMMYT.
- Dr. Sukhwinder Singh – Wheat Lead for SeeD, CIMMYT
INTRODUCTION
International travel, trade globalisation and climate change are fuelling the expanding distribution and geographical range of plant pests and pathogens. Incursions pose a significant threat to wheat trade and productivity. It is estimated that the economic loss from an exotic pathogen (eg, Karnal bunt), should it become established across all of Australia’s wheat-growing regions, would amount to $A491 million per annum. Genetic protection of the host plant itself is an environment-friendly, best-practice approach to manage the risk.
OBJECTIVES:
(1) Incorporate resistance genes identified for the key exotic pests and pathogens (Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest) into elite locally adapted Australian wheat germplasm that will be available to breeding entities for variety development;
(2) Generate new knowledge of the relative resistance or susceptibility to Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest of at least 80 current Australian elite cultivars that includes northern, southern and western varieties;
(3) Develop and identify molecular markers linked to the key exotic pests and disease that can be employed in routine breeding as selection tools in the accelerated transfer of resistance from parental genetic stocks into commercial cultivars.
APPROACH:
- Phenotype a large collection of locally adapted Australian wheat varieties for resistance/susceptibility to Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest;
- Characterise haplotype structure of locally adapted Australian varieties for genes/QTL alleles associated with resistance to Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest;
- Identify and genetically map the genomic regions in wheat conferring resistance to Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest using a combination of biparental and association mapping populations;
- Identify functional molecular markers linked to Karnal bunt, Hessian fly and Sunn pest that can be employed in routine breeding as selection tools;
- In parallel with the above activities, conduct introgession/pyramiding of known resistance genes into elite, locally adapted Australian background that includes northern, southern and western eco-regions, and provide BC2F1 materials to breeding companies for use in their breeding programs.
METHODOLOGY:
(1) Phenotyping for Sunn pest and Hessian fly resistance will be carried out by ICARDA (Dr. Mustapha El Bouhssini) at Morocco and Lebanon;
(2) Phenotyping for Karnal bunt resistance will be carried out by CIMMYT at Cuidad, Obregon, Mexico (Dr. Pawan Singh) and in India (Dr. Sukhwinder Singh);
(3) Gene/QTL introgression and backcross breeding will be carried out at ICARDA (Dr. Tadesse Wulataw);
(4) Marker development –
(a) Genotyping with high-density SNP markers will be undertaken using the Australian Wheat 90K SNP or GBS technology provided under GRDC Project DAV00127;
(b) Functional markers will also be developed from sequenced data obtained using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies.
OUTPUT:
(1) Resistant germplasm in elite, locally adapted Australian background,
(2) New knowledge of the relative resistance or susceptibility of current Australian elite cultivars
(3) Functional DNA markers for routine use in breeding.
Latest data
-screening data of Australian Wheat for Hessian Fly
