Transcript Read more - Regjeringen.no

Project 3. Mycotoxin Prevention in Cereal
Crops by Enhanced Host Plant Resistance
Seminar, Staur Norway 16-17. August. 2004.
Brian Steffenson,UM
Åsmund Bjørnstad NLH
The problem: head blight caused
by Fusarium fungi
•Shrivelled seeds
•Yield and quality losses
•Mycotoxin contamination
The scale of the problem





$3 billion loss in the US since 1993
Among the worst crop disease
epidemics in US history
Ruined many farmers and the
region’s reputation for high quality
malting barley
The most serious disease of wheat
In Norway, a #1 resistance priority in
wheat and oat, #2 in barley
Why Fusarium head blight
(FHB)?




A side-effect of soil protection!
Less/no till leaves residues to
contaminate next year’s crop
Severe infection when wet weather
occurs during heading
Increasing practice in Europe
We need to adapt plants to the
no-till growing conditions.
How can we prevent FHB?





Resistance !
Fungicides may increase the
problem
Resistance found in humid
environments like South China and
Brazil
To make adapted genotypes is a
long and tedious project
No completely effective resistance
is known in any cereal
To identify resistance to FHB: Costly and
variable field trials
Inoculation
Resistant spikes
Plastic bags
give humidity
Susceptible
Replace this by DNA technologies


Select for
reliable genetic
markers
(”fingerprints”)
rather than field
selection
Transgenic
resistance by
strengthening the
natural plant
defenses
Progeny from crosses with Sumai 3
Resistance allele marker >
Why UM and NLH?






UM: 8 faculty involved in FHB work
70 years in FHB research
World leader in DNA marker
development and basic research in FHB
NLH/Planteforsk: >5 faculty/
researchers, the strongest in the Nordic
countries
Both have close ties to breeding
implementation
Many potential interfaces of
collaboration
Collaboration in cereal markers




We work on complementary
sources of germplasm
UM: Very good markers in wheat
based on the Chinese Sumai 3
NLH: Promising resistance in oats,
UM is world leading in oat biotech
GOALS:
Develop/validate/implement
markers NLH-UM
Collaboration with
breeders and industry



NLH: Graminor, Svaløf-Weibull:
ready to implement the UM Sumai
3 markers in their wheat breeding
UM breeding programs
Potential: Busch Agr. Resources
Inc., Cargill
Collaboration in functional
genomics of FHB





Complexity of cereal genomes: Barley
18 x bigger than human genome, wheat
3x barley: maps very demanding
Rice can provide markers (UM work)
UM: A number of genomic approches
both in host and pathogen
NLH: Induced resistance by elicitors,
gene expression, expression-based
markers, RT-PCR of fungal toxin genes
GOALS: To understand the basic
defense system to FHB
Barley1 GeneChip
Gene Expression
Data
~500,000 spots
22,840 barley
genes
Bioinformatics


Genomics: Analyze QTL and
functional data by Partial Least
Squares, Dr. Harald Martens,
CIGENE
Analytical methods: Replace
expensive mycotoxin analyses by
NIR (Dr. Roger Ruan/ Dr. Harald
Martens, NLH)
Collaboration in transgenes




Express natural plant defenses
more strongly
UM: Many potential antifungal
genes are being tested in transgene
prototypes
NLH/Norw. Crop Research
Institute: transgenes which are
active at the time of infection
GOAL: to develop and test
transgenic lines resistant to FHB
Transgenic technologies in barley
Essential clue: express the transgene during
early seed development (work in Ås, Dr. S.
Klemsdal)
GP-UT
ltp2-ech42
ltp2nag1 S35-ech42
Transgenic Fusarium resistance
Infected
control Infected transgene
Noninfected
control
Courtesy: Dr. S. Klemsdal
Collaboration in education



UM: graduate program, MAST
International exchange program in
agriculture at the UM
NLH: A new Post graduate
program in plant biology about to
be developed
Can benefit strongly from UM, one
of the strongest schools in the US
Established funding
sources



USDA: US Wheat-Barley Scab
Initiative + USDA/NRI + NSF
Minnesota Scab Initiative
Norwegian Research Council +
Graminor (not sufficient for large
scale functional genomic work)
Suggested funding levels



1 Ph.D. student + 1 postdoc in each
group (may work jointly/
interactively)
Field testing, mycotoxin analyses,
exchange/travel, other running
costs
Recommended cost levels: 3 mill
NOK/4-500’ USD per year put
together
Have a good crop!