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Work package 4: Novel breeding strategies and tools

Description

A unifying novelty implemented by work package 4 consisted of incorporating genetic knowledge about below-ground (root) traits, in the breeding strategies for yield adaptation under combined water and nitrogen stress of wheat and potato, as derived from the phenotyping efforts achieved in work package 2.

Novel tools such as molecular markers targeting these unconventional traits were developed and released to breeders and researchers. Novel wheat breeding strategies, strongly involving breeders and other stakeholders along the production chain, consisted of conducting genomic selection for bread and durum wheat on the one hand, and participatory, evolutionary breeding for durum wheat on the other hand.

For bread wheat and potato, designing hybrids was the third novel strategy developed in work package 4 to exploit heterosis for above- and below-ground traits involved in crop performance under combined stresses. This novel genetic material was used by other work packages, from controlled lab, semi-field or field conditions (work packages 2 and 3) to farmers' networks across Europe (work package 5), both in conventional and organic farming systems.

Objectives

Work package 4 aimed to develop novel breeding strategies and tools to improve crops to adapt to combined water and nutrient stresses, with the ambition to constitute general strategies that can be exploited in any other condition of multiple contemporary stresses. The specific objectives were to:

  • Identify genetic associations between markers, below- and above-ground traits for yield adaptation to combined stresses (Task 4.1)
  • Develop a genomic selection (GS) strategy for breeding of adaptation to combined stresses (Task 4.2)
  • Develop an evolutionary participatory breeding strategy for yield adaptation to combined stresses in durum wheat (Task 4.3)
  • Develop a strategy to design F1 hybrids in bread wheat and potato to cope with combined stresses (Task 4.4)

Key results and messages

  • QTLs for a number of root traits have been identified in wheat, and associated SNP markers made publically available;
  • The root/shoot biomass ratio is one of the most promising root traits for improving wheat yields under water and nitrogen stress.
  • Two genomic selection models have been designed and used for two genomic selection schemes in bread and durum wheat, respectively targeting root/shoot biomass ratio, and root length and angle: new wheat lines have been obtained from both programmes.
  • New durum wheat lines have been selected by farmers in Hungary and Italy starting from the initial EPO evolutionary population as a main result of the participatory breeding programme.
  • The SolACE true diploid potato hybrids have been tested in several environments in Europe, and the best ones among them reached the yields of elite tetraploid varieties.

Resources

Practice abstracts and training materials

Video

Public Deliverables

Journal articles

  • eucarpia.eu: Introduction of participatory breeding practices in Hungary - a case study (p.144)
  • Shedding light on a hot topic: Tuberization in potato. Julia E. Stockem, M. E. de Vries, P. C. Struik. Submitted to Annals of Applied Biology
  • Diversity matters in wheat mixtures: a genomic survey of the impact of genetic diversity on the performance of 12 way durum wheat mixtures grown in two constrasted and controlled environments. Pauline Alsabbagh, Laurène Gay, Michel Colombo, Aline Rocher, Vincent Allard, Jacques L. David.
  • Genome-wide association mapping of root traits in durum wheat (Triticum durum). Laidò G., Dono G., Collet C., Draye X., Lamboeuf M., Salon C., De Vita P., Pecchioni N. 65th Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics Annual Congress, Piacenza, September 6-9 (5.39)

Work package leaders

  • Nicola Pecchioni, CREA, Work package leader
  • Michiel de Vries, SOLYNTA, Work package co-leader
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