Source: CORNELL UNIVERSITY submitted to
BREEDING AND GENETICS OF THE SMALL GRAIN CEREALS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1010545
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
NYC-149447
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2016
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2019
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Sorrells, MA, EA.
Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
PLANT BREEDING AND GENETICS
Non Technical Summary
Small grains production contributes to New York agriculture by providing essential food, fiber, and feed for the state and the surrounding region. Cornell has the only active small grains breeding program, public or private, located in the northeastern U.S. and our research contributes directly to multiple goals of Cornell Cooperative Extension including servicing agriculture and food systems, sustainable agro-ecosystems, adaptation to climate change, family nutrition, food safety and security, obesity prevention, and community economic vitality. Small grains production requires minimal inputs, is environmentally friendly, adaptable to organic production and contributes directly to the economic and nutritional well being of rural communities. Products derived from grains, especially whole grains, are nutritious and contribute to a healthful diet for people of all ages. Since 1907, this research project has produced more than 70 small grains cultivars. An effective regional plant breeding research program can enhance the productivity of small grains varieties and meet the changing climate and stakeholder needs that are specific to northeast agriculture. This project will emphasize the development of new cultivars of winter wheat and spring barley that have high yield, disease resistance, and quality.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
60%
Developmental
30%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2011549108125%
2011550108125%
2011549108025%
2011550108025%
Knowledge Area
201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
1549 - Wheat, general/other; 1550 - Barley;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics; 1081 - Breeding;
Goals / Objectives
1. To develop, introduce, and evaluate new cultivars of small grains having improved yield, grain quality, disease resistance, and other characteristics that increase the crop value, safety, production efficiency, and stability for stakeholders in New York and the northeastern U.S. This objective includes the development of our own new varieties as well as regional evaluation of private and public varieties from other programs. 2. To devise and evaluate novel breeding methods including marker-assisted-breeding and genomic selection that effectively manipulate genetic variability for desirable agronomic traits and contribute to breeding theory and graduate student training. New knowledge and technologies will be used to drive advances in breeding methodologies, topics that are rarely explored in the public sector. This objective is critical for implementing molecular breeding methods in our breeding program.3. To elucidate the inheritance, chromosomal location, and expression of genes controlling relevant agronomic plant characteristics. Specifically, this project is targeting pre-harvest sprouting, fusarium head blight and nutritional quality in grains.
Project Methods
This project emphasizes the development of novel breeding methods that improve the efficiency of variety development and advance the science of plant breeding. Currently our research is focused on the implementation of molecular breeding methods and development of soft winter wheat and spring malting barley varieties. Selection methods include conventional and molecular selection for resistance to lodging and major diseases (especially fusarium head blight), acceptable milling and baking quality, pre-harvest sprouting resistance, and improved grain yield. Selections from early generations that have acceptable maturity, height, seed quality, disease resistance, and vigor enter our regional testing program. Superior genotypes will be determined by comprehensive trial testing and released through the New York Seed Improvement Project as new cultivars for commercial production in the northeast. Unbiased performance information is required for farmers, seed companies, and extension agents to choose the varieties that maximize return on investment and stability of income. In this project we are continuing our research on a new molecular breeding strategy that is complementary to marker-assisted selection called "Genomic Selection". This methodology was originally developed by animal breeders but it has great promise for crop improvement. Because this breeding method can potentially increase the rate of genetic gain, it is especially useful for dealing with climate change. Currently, we are focused on optimizing the training of statistical models for genomic selection in our wheat breeding program.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:We have a diverse target audience that includes grain growers and grain users, grain processors that mill and produce products, distilleries, maltsters, consumers that purchase specialty grains and grain products, extension agents, and the seed industry. Our target audiences are farmers, extension agents and administrators, seed industry representatives, agronomists, economists, students, USDA researchers and technical support people. In addition, I frequently give presentations and seminars in various regions around the world including developing countries on our molecular breeding research. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provide training and professional development for the following people: David Benscher - Research Support Specialist James Tanaka - Lab Manager? Technical assistant - Amy Fox? Graduate students - Philomin Juliana, Jafar Jafarzadeh, Lisa Kissing Kucek, Nicolas Santantonio, Itaraju Brum, Daniel Sweeney, Margaret Krause, Lynn Veenstra Undergraduate - Karl Kunze? Visiting Scientists - Alvina Gul, Hanna Haikka? Post Docs - Haixiao Hu, Jin Sun? All of our students, post docs, and visiting scientists receive training in state of the art plant breeding methods including lab and fieldwork. We collaborate with many researchers both nationally and internationally. The breeding program provides indispensable training for students and post docs. There is a Nation Wide shortage of trained plant breeders and this project provides invaluable experience. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All of our students, post docs, and visiting scientists receive training in state of the art plant breeding methods including lab, greenhouse and fieldwork. We collaborate with many other researchers both nationally and internationally. The breeding program provides indispensable training for students and post docs. There is a nation wide shortage of trained plant breeders and this project provides invaluable experience. Our variety trial results are presented at field days and training workshops where we explain to extension agents, growers and wheat end users the importance and impacts of our research. Our breeding project is very important for training the next generation of plant breeders because it provides them with hands-on experience in a modern plant breeding program that integrates conventional and modern molecular technologies. Our performance trials are published in an annual report that is mailed or emailed to approximately 200 individuals and agencies. It is also available on our web site (smallgrains.cals.cornell.edu). Our research results are published in high quality peer-reviewed scientific journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue our small grains breeding and genetics research as outlined in our proposal to accomplish the objectives above.We have expanded our malting barley breeding program to include winter barley. This past year we made several crosses between the best winter malting barley varieties including crosses with facultative lines. This fall we initiated a naked barley breeding program in collaboration with Oregon State University.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Small grains production contributes to New York agriculture by providing essential food, fiber, and feed for the state and the surrounding region. Cornell has the only active small grains breeding program, public or private, located in the northeastern U.S. and our research contributes directly to multiple goals of Cornell Cooperative Extension including servicing agriculture and food systems, sustainable agro-ecosystems, adaptation to climate change, family nutrition, food safety and security, obesity prevention, and community economic vitality. Our regional trial evaluations of small grains varieties and experimental lines are the backbone of our program and they provide unbiased information for farmers, the seed industry and processors. These state-wide trials include winter wheat, winter barley, winter rye, spring wheat, spring oats, and spring barley. For several years we have been conducting organic management trials. With support from New York State and the Genesee Regional Market Authority we have expanded the organic trials with winter wheat, winter barley, winter rye, spring wheat, spring oats and spring barley. Our efforts to increase the acreage of fusarium head blight (FHB) resistant wheat and barley varieties have begun to pay off. Our FHB research is supported in part by the USDA-funded U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative and involves collaboration with breeders in seven other states on three sub-projects. Over the past six years, we continued our FHB recurrent selection dominant male-sterile project that involves selection within and among 200 half-sib families. In 2016-17, we continued this project with MS FHB resistant half sibs planted in two replicates for selection again in 2018. We also evaluated 60 fertile half sibs from the selected families and all were equal to or more resistant to FHB than our most resistant line. The third sub-project was a collaboration with Ohio State University and Michigan State University to use genomic selection to improve FHB resistance in soft winter wheat breeding lines. This project is continuing and we are currently evaluating the gain from selection for FHB resistance in wheat. We evaluate all of the wheat and barley varieties and lines that are in our regional trials each year. We are planning to release a new soft white winter wheat line NY99056-161 this winter that has excellent resistance to FHB. Among the soft red varieties, the Pioneer lines have topped our trial for the past 3 years. Our soft red variety, Erie, continues to perform well and has moderate resistance to FHB but is 5% lower yielding than Pioneer 25R40. We have arranged a co-release with the University of Illinois to release one of their wheat lines, IL04-8445-440 ,which has moderate resistance to FHB. Spring and winter malting barley varieties generally do not have much resistance to FHB, however KWS Scala has had the lowest scores and is one of the best performing varieties for NY. We began evaluating Hybrid Rye varieties from the German company KWS in 2013. These new hybrids have outstanding yield and lodging resistance. The better hybrids have out-yielded Medina soft white winter wheat and the best synthetic rye varieties by 30-50%. . In 2015, Seedway began production of hybrid rye seed in NY. These hybrid rye varieties are revolutionizing rye production in this region. For the past two years new hybrid rye varieties have out yielded Brasetto, previously the highest yielding hybrid in our trials. Spring oat acreage has been stable in New York for several years. Corral has been a solid performer for several years but this year it got hit by a new race of Crown Rust. We have arranged a co-release with the University of Minnesota for MN09255 oat and we planted a Breeder seed increase in 2017. Both MN09255 and Hayden showed good resistance to Crown Rust this year. In 2012, the New York State Legislature passed a Farm Brewery Bill that provides tax and marketing incentives to small breweries provided they use New York grown ingredients. However, there was no malting barley being grown in NY in recent decades. With generous support from New York State we have been testing both winter and spring malting barley varieties from around the world for their adaptation to NY. Over the past 5 years, we have identified two winter malting barley varieties, KWS Scala and SY Tepee, that have acceptable yield, winter survival, and malting quality. Unfortunately, Syngenta has stopped the sale of SY Tepee in NY for unknown reasons. We have identified two new winter malting barleys, Flavia and KWS Sommerset that are performing well and seed of Flavia has been obtained for production in NY. For spring malting barley, AAC Synergy from Canada and ND Genesis 2 row malting barley from North Dakota State University are the highest yielding and have adequate quality. AAC Synergy is very susceptible to preharvest sprouting (PHS) and ND Genesis is susceptible to FHB. PHS, foliar diseases and FHB are major problems for this crop and a local breeding effort is needed to develop varieties that will succeed in this region. Consequently, in 2016 we initiated a high intensity spring 2 row malting barley breeding program that we refer to as Born, Bred, and Brewed in NY. This past year we grew 1,400 lines from 7 crosses. These were selected for resistance to foliar disease, PHS and FHB. In September we sent 250 selections to New Zealand for seed increase that we will use for state-wide trials in 2018. Our goal is to identify a superior spring 2 row malting barley with excellent performance and quality for NY in 2019. We continued our research on genomic selection. The results of this work have been groundbreaking and have resulted in twelve new publications during this project. This past year we completed a genomic selection project to increase fructan content in wheat. Two GS selection methodologies were compared in terms of realized gain from selection for grain fructan content, and impacts on inbreeding, genetic variance, and agronomic characteristics. The key messages of these studies were 1) GxE interactions exist for wheat grain fructan content, but their impacts on GS prediction accuracies is small, 2) the quantitative genetic architecture of wheat grain fructan content supports the use of GS methodologies, 3) GS for wheat grain fructan content is a feasible, effective selection methodology that produces significant gains from selection, 4) the use of Optimum Contribution Selection (OCS) to control for long term inbreeding effectively controlled inbreeding and conserved genetic variance relative to GBLUP selection populations. Breeding programs implementing GS for wheat grain fructan content should focus efforts on designing breeding pipelines to capitalize on varying maturity of crossing materials, controlling inbreeding within populations, updating training populations, and evaluation of materials over multiple years of field trials. Each year we distribute the results of our New York State variety-testing program for spring and winter grains to extension agents, seed companies and farmers in the northeast and also publish the summaries on the web (http://smallgrains.cals.cornell.edu).

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kissing Kucek, L., E. Dyck, J. Russell, E. Clark, J. Hamelman, S. Burns-Leader, S. Senders, J. Jones, D. Benscher, M. Davis, G. Roth, S. Zwinger, M.E. Sorrells, J.C. Dawson. 2017. Evaluation of wheat and emmer varieties for artisanal baking, pasta making, and sensory quality, J. Cereal Science, 74:19-27, doi:10.1016/j.jcs.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rutkoski, J.E., J. Crain, J. Poland, M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Genomic Selection for Small Grains Improvement. In: Varshney, R.K., M. Roorkiwal, M.E Sorrells., editors, Genomic Selection for Crop Improvement. Springer International Publishing, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-63170-7.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Soriano, J.M., M. Malosetti, M. Rosell�, M.E. Sorrells, C. Royo. 2017. Dissecting the old Mediterranean durum wheat genetic architecture for phenology, biomass and yield formation by association mapping and QTL meta-analysis. Plos One. 12(5): e0178290. doi:/10.1371/ journal.pone.0178290.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Sun, J., J.E. Rutkoski, J.A. Poland, J. Crossa, J-L Jannink, and M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Multitrait, Random Regression, or Simple Repeatability Model in High-Throughput Phenotyping Data Improve Genomic Prediction for Wheat Grain Yield. The Plant Genome. doi:10.3835/plantgenome2016.11.0111.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Tan, C-T Hangjin Yu. Yan Yang. Xiangyang Xu. Mingshun Chen. Jackie C. Rudd. Qingwu Xue. Amir M.H. Ibrahim. Lisa Garza. Shichen Wang. Mark E. Sorrells. Shuyu Liu. 2017. Development and validation of KASP markers for the greenbug resistance gene Gb7 and the Hessian fly resistance gene H32 in wheat. Theor. Appl. Genet. 130:18671884.
  • Type: Books Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Varshney, R.K., M. Roorkiwal, M.E Sorrells. 2017. Genomic Selection for Crop Improvement. Springer International Publishing DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-63170-7.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Varshney, R.K., M. Roorkiwal, M.E Sorrells. 2017. Genomic Selection for Crop Improvement: An Introduction. In: Varshney, R.K., M. Roorkiwal, M.E Sorrells., editors, Genomic Selection for Crop Improvement. Springer International Publishing DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-63170-7.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Veenstra, L.D., J-L. Jannink, M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Wheat Fructans: A potential breeding target for nutritionally improved, climate resilient varieties. Crop Science doi:10.2135/cropsci2016.11.0955.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yu, L-X, S. Chao, R.P. Singh and M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Identification and Validation of Single Nucleotide Polymorphic Markers Linked to Ug99 Stem Rust Resistance in Spring Wheat. PLOS ONE. 12 (2): e0171963. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0171963.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Juliana, P., R.P. Singh, P.K. Singh, J. Crossa, J. Huerta?Espino, C. Lan, S. Bhavani, J.E. Rutkoski, J.A. Poland, G.C. Bergstrom, M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Genomic and pedigree-based prediction for leaf, stem, and stripe rust resistance in wheat. Theor Appl Genet 130: 1415-1430. doi:10.1007/s00122-017-2897-1.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Juliana, P., R.P. Singh, P.K. Singh, J. Crossa, J.E. Rutkoski, J.A. Poland, G.C. Bergstrom, and M.E. Sorrells. 2017. Comparison of Models and Whole-Genome Profiling Approaches for Genomic-Enabled Prediction of Septoria Tritici Blotch, Stagonospora Nodorum Blotch, and Tan Spot Resistance in Wheat. The Plant Genome. doi:10.3835/plantgenome2016.08.0082.