* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Japanese barleys offer frost-tolerance hope
Pathogenomics wikipedia , lookup
Gene expression programming wikipedia , lookup
Nutriepigenomics wikipedia , lookup
Essential gene wikipedia , lookup
Pharmacogenomics wikipedia , lookup
Genetically modified crops wikipedia , lookup
Human genetic variation wikipedia , lookup
Population genetics wikipedia , lookup
Genome evolution wikipedia , lookup
Genetic testing wikipedia , lookup
Genomic imprinting wikipedia , lookup
Designer baby wikipedia , lookup
Epigenetics of human development wikipedia , lookup
Behavioural genetics wikipedia , lookup
Gene expression profiling wikipedia , lookup
Ridge (biology) wikipedia , lookup
Minimal genome wikipedia , lookup
Heritability of IQ wikipedia , lookup
Quantitative trait locus wikipedia , lookup
Genetic engineering wikipedia , lookup
Microevolution wikipedia , lookup
Public health genomics wikipedia , lookup
Biology and consumer behaviour wikipedia , lookup
Cropping Better barleys This article appeared in the January 2010 edition of the Kondinin Group’s monthly magazine Farming Ahead. The Kondinin Group holds the copyright on the article. Reproduction of this text in whole or part by any other publication or for any other purpose is not permitted without permission of the Farming Ahead editor. For more information contact Kondinin Group on 1800 677 761. Photo: Emma Leonard Japanese barleys offer frost-tolerance hope Nick Collins for Grains Research and Development Corporation Potential options: Frosts cost an estimated $100 million in lost cereal production but genetic research offers the promise of frost-tolerant varieties within the next decade. At a glance Management strategies are currently the only way to reduce the risk of cereal frost damage. Two Japanese barley varieties have been identified with moderate genetic frost-tolerance. This genetic resistance could form the basis of future breeding programs for genetic frost resistance in other cereal varieties. Identifying genetic frost-tolerance is an important step in breeding tolerant varieties for Australian growers. Management strategies are currently the only option Australian growers have to reduce the risk and impact of frosts, which cost an estimated $100 million in lost cereal yields each year. However research at the University of Adelaide, funded by the Grains and Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), has identified genes in two varieties of Japanese barley, which could be used in plant breeding programs to increase genetic frost-tolerance in grain varieties Frosts in the order of -4 degree Celsius to –80C can cause floret sterility or damage to the developing grain. The threat of frost also has an indirect effect on production because growers delay sowing so that flowering occurs after the period of maximum frost risk. The lack of frost-tolerant cereals for Australian growers partly reflects the difficulties of breeding for frost-tolerance at flowering (reproductive frost-tolerance), and the apparent lack of strong natural tolerance in any barley or wheat varieties. Challenges in identifying and assessing frost-tolerance include the traditional reliance on unpredictable natural frost events for scoring and the tendency of any flowering-time differences to interfere with the detection of true tolerance. Hope on the horizon The University of Adelaide’s barley breeding group, led by Jason Eglinton, has identified the Japanese barley varieties Amagi Nijo and Haruna Nijo as being moderately frost-tolerant. They determined that this tolerance was controlled by genes at two chromosome locations. Although the effects of these genes are relatively subtle, each accounting for about 15 per cent higher fertility after a frost event of -40C, these are the only reproductive frost-tolerance loci so far described in any cereal. One program at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) aims to isolate the two barley frost-tolerance genes. This work could reveal the nature of natural frost-tolerance mechanisms, provide tools to allow more efficient selection of the genes in breeding programs, and create opportunities for producing tolerant barley or wheat varieties by genetic engineering. Jason Reinheimer and Andrew Chen, assisted by visiting scientists Anita BrûléBabel (University of Manitoba) and Larry Gusta (University of Saskatchewan), have been able to demonstrate that the two genes provide real frost-tolerance rather than an escape mechanism based on flowering time. The go ahead This knowledge gives the researchers the green light for accurate localisation and eventual isolation of the genes. A state-ofthe-art frost simulation chamber, built by the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) on the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide, was shown to be capable of reproducing the varietal frost-tolerance differences seen in the field, and will be an essential tool in ongoing research. In another approach, ACPFG researchers are investigating several types of master switches (transcription factors) known to control biochemical responses or tolerance to cold and other stresses. Genetic engineering is being used to express these factors to high levels and in a cold-inducible manner in cereal heads. The transgenic plants will be assessed for reproductive frost-tolerance. Cereals also possess genes for antifreeze factors, but these are not normally expressed in heads. Farming Ahead January 2010 No. 216 www.farmingahead.com.au 55 Cropping Cropping soil health Better barleys Photo: R Freebairn transporting and spreading various inputs and making assumptions about the relative availability of each nutrient. For example, applying manure with an N:P:K ratio of 2.2:0.8:2.3 at one tonne per hectare would supply 26, 8 and 23kg/ha of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium respectively. This would be enough to replace the phosphorus and potassium removed in a 3t/ha wheat crop, but additional nitrogen (at least 58kg/ha) would be needed. contAct dr chris dorahy, Ableblue Pty ltd (03) 5579 8519 [email protected] toni nugent is a researcher and writer for Screening: Barley field screening plots for frost assessment. Australian lines developed with genes kondinin group. transferred from frost-tolerant Japanese varieties are showing good improvements in frost-tolerance [email protected] as well as high yields and sound type. Australian Grains, which is available from Ground Cover Direct. However it is anticipated that varieties with improved frost-tolerance at flowering will be developed in the future. Based on current knowledge and technologies, improved frost-tolerance could be a reality in the next decade. More information Managing Frost Risk: A Guide for Southern Australian Grains is available from Ground Cover Direct, freephone 1800 11 00 44, ground-cover-direct@canprint. com.au, www.grdc.com.au/bookshop. GRDC research Contact Dr Nick Collins, ACPFG (08) 8303 7171 [email protected] Farming Ahead December 2009 No. 215 www.farmingahead.com.au 56 Farming Ahead January 2010 No. 216 www.farmingahead.com.au photo: simone Jolliffe Transgenic cereal plants made to express barley antifreeze genes in heads are being produced in a strategy to engineer mixing it together: Feedstocks are added reproductive frost-tolerance. and incorporated one at a time fromAthe similar approach is through being pursued elsewhere using least dense to most dense. Straw is antifreeze genes tofrom Antarctic hairgrass the first feedstock be added, with bales being ‘busted up’ for an even spread (Victorian Department of and Primary decomposition.or from the fish winter Industries), flounder (University of Southern Queensland). Management will remain an important method for dealing with frost in cereals and strategies are detailed in the book Managing Frost Risk: A Guide for Southern 63