WINTER WHEAT BREEDING PROGRAM

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: TERMINATED
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1009360
• Project No.: MO-HAPS0008
• Project Start Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Project End Date: Feb 12, 2020

Project Director
McKendry, AN.

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
(N/A)
COLUMBIA,MO 65211

Performing Department
Plant Sciences

Non Technical Summary
Common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the number one food grain consumed directly by humans. Although Missouri acreage tends to vary with weather and price, the state ranks as one of the top three soft red winter wheat producing states in the nation. A wheat breeding program within the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Missouri (MU) which gives priority to the development of improved varieties and enhanced germplasm is essential to the farm economy of Missouri. It enhances profitable wheat production in the state because of two key factors: (1) there has been limited private company involvement in wheat breeding thereby necessitating greater involvement of public institutions in varietal development and (2) production areas within the state vary with respect to climate and soil type and therefore, a Missouri based program is essential to the development of varieties adapted to all wheat growing areas of the state. In addition to its importance to the Missouri farm economy, the wheat breeding program functions as an integral part of the plant breeding and genetics curriculum within the Division of Plant Sciences at MU. There is a shortage of plant breeders nationally and data has shown that there is a growing interest in the discipline in our undergraduate and graduate student population. Modern plant breeders require skills acquired by working in competitive variety development programs coupled with skills in techniques of molecular biology and management of the large data sets they generate. The wheat breeding program provides them with practical examples of the theories and concepts or breeding self-pollinated crops that are taught in the classroom as well as a problem-based learning environment critical to the training of a new generation of plant breeders. Through the employment of high school students attract new students to agricultural sciences.Significant yield losses caused by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe the pathogen known to cause Fusarium head blight (FHB) or scab in wheat, continue to cause crop losses in Missouri, particularly where FHB resistant varieties are not planted. In addition, losses in the marketability of the crop occur when mycotoxin levels produced by the pathogen exceed threshold levels dictated by the end-use of the grain. In 2015, rainfall occurred almost every week during the entire crop season often persistently and in large quantities resulting in toxin levels accumulating throughout the growing season. Grain was badly damaged and in many parts of the state DON levels exceeded 30 ppm rendering it unmarketable. The need for enhanced resistance in backgrounds that are high yielding so growers will select them for production was never more apparent. Missouri has been on the forefront of developing wheat varieties that have high levels of resistance to FHB. Many unique sources of resistance have been identified in the Missouri program since 1993, including resistances in Ernie, Bess, Truman, and MO 080104 (the latter under proprietary license) released by the University of Missouri since our FHB work began in 1995. Recognition for our work in this area is demonstrated by the fact that these varieties all serve as check varieties for FHB resistance in various regional breeding nurseries. In the variety MO 080104 we have successfully combined high levels of resistance with a superior agronomic package including high grain yield and test weight and extremely broad adaptation that have placed it in demand throughout the soft red winter wheat growing region. We need to examine the resistance in both Truman and MO 080104 to better understand the genetics of the resistance in order to exploit it more effectively in our breeding program. In addition, we need to identify and validate critical regions on the wheat chromosomes (quantitative trait loci; QTL) associated with FHB resistance that will accelerate the development of new varieties combining these two sources of resistance. Broadly then the goals of the research within the wheat breeding program are to continue to study the genetics of different sources of resistance in Missouri wheat, in an effort to effectively and efficiently combine these genes with those discovered and characterized globally in an effort to further improve the level of FHB resistance available to growers in Missouri and beyond. This research should lessen the damaging effect of FHB on the wheat crop thereby directly contributing to a more positive farm economy for the state.

Animal Health Component

0%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

15%

Applied

35%

Developmental

50%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
202	1542	1080	45%
212	1542	1080	10%
201	1542	1081	45%

Knowledge Area
212 - Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants; 202 - Plant Genetic Resources; 201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms;

Subject Of Investigation
1542 - Soft red wheat;

Field Of Science
1081 - Breeding; 1080 - Genetics;

Keywords

wheat breeding

triticum aestivum l

soft red winter wheat

fusarium head blight resistance

scab

resistance qtl

single nucleotide polymorphisms

snp

marker-assisted-selection

native resistance

food safety

Goals / Objectives
Objectives are partitioned into long term (breeding) and shorter term (research) objectives.Wheat Breeding Objectives:To develop and release varieties of soft red winter wheat and/or enhanced germplasm with improved grain yield and end use quality.To increase the biological efficiency of soft red winter wheat through discovery and introgression of genes for traits, e.g. disease resistance, that will maximize production in Missouri, surrounding states, and throughout the soft red winter wheat production region.To pyramid known sources of relevant disease resistances (stripe rust, stem rust, FHB) and known QTL into Missouri advanced breeding lines.Research Objectives:To saturate chromosomes carrying FHB QTL in Truman with SNPs in an effort to refine molecular markers for FHB resistance.To validate QTL for all four FHB resistance traits in Truman.To investigate the genetics of the FHB resistance in the Missouri variety MO 080104.To continue the discovery of potentially novel sources of resistance through systematic screening of all advanced breeding lines.

Project Methods
Wheat Breeding: Soft red winter wheat breeding programs are concentrated in 13 eastern states. Programs in Missouri and Arkansas are the most western, major programs. The winter wheat breeding program at MU has been active since 1905 and has released many varieties to Missouri growers including, Michigan Wonder No. 8, Early Premium, Lewis, Stadler, Stoddard, Hart, Pike, Ernie, Truman, Bess, and Milton along with several lines that have been made available in Missouri and beyond as brands or as proprietary varieties under licensing contracts. Missouri also has participated with other state experiment stations in the release of numerous wheat varieties originating from breeding programs in the eastern soft red winter wheat region which have been identified, through the Missouri testing program, as having potential for Missouri growers. In recent years, because of the cost associated with maintaining breeding programs in the university setting, there has been increased demand to make these programs self-supporting. Many Midwestern University programs have approached this funding need by partnering with private industry so that varieties can be widely marketed, serve more growers, and increase royalty revenues coming into the program. The Missouri program has taken this route in the last few (3) years and is now partnered with Limagrain Cereal Seeds for both wide-scale testing of our germplasm and for variety release. Wheat Research: Fusarium head blight resistance was introduced as an objective in the Missouri wheat breeding program in1993 following sate-wide outbreaks in 1990 and 1991 that resulted in direct yield losses that exceeded $250 million. Losses to grain quality and therefore sales at the elevator due to deoxynivalenol contamination of the grain devastated the wheat economy in Missouri in those years. Resistance to FHB is complex, consisting of four, apparently independent components of resistance (Mesterházy 1995) including reduced incidence (type I resistance) and severity (type II resistance), low toxin (DON) contamination of the grain (type III resistance) and increased kernel quality retention under disease pressure (type IV resistance) (Mesterházy, 1995). Resistant germplasm currently used in wheat breeding programs primarily provides type II resistance. Reports of the genetics of type II resistance have been inconsistent ranging from quantitative (Liao et al. 1985; Sheng and He 1989), oligogenic (Liu et al. 1989; Bai et al. 2000) or monogenic (Chen 1989). The contradiction in results in the older literature is thought to be due to the source of resistance investigated, contribution of genes from the susceptible parent, the disease screening methods used, and/or the isolate of the pathogen used for evaluating the phenotype. All of these factors can influence the number of genes detected in conventional inheritance studies (Kolb et al. 2001).

Progress 10/01/19 to 02/12/20

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Dr. McKendry has retired from the University, please see previously submitted reports for final/full progress of this project.

Publications

Progress 03/03/16 to 02/12/20

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Dr. McKendry has retired from the University, please see previously submitted reports for final/full progress of this project.

Publications

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Dr. McKendry has retired from the University, please see previously submitted reports for final/full progress of this project.

Publications

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems:Dr. McKendry has retired from the University, please see previously submitted reports for final/full progress of this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Dr. McKendry retired from the University and is unable to complete the reports on this project.

Publications

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

Outputs
Target Audience:Three target audiences are targeted by this research. 1. Wheat growers in Missouri, surrounding states and throughout the soft red winter wheat region are the producers this research targets. 2. Wheat breeders at public institutions or the USDA throughout the US winter wheat region are a secondary target of the products of the Missouri wheat breeding program as germplasm exchange for the purpose of wheat research including crossing enhances all of our programs. 3. Wheat scientists nationally and internationally are the targets of research papers that are developed from this project. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In 2017, 4 of our Breeding, Biology and Biotechnology undergraduate students (Bailey Kretzler, Andrew Ludwig, Connor Edwards, and Tsai-Ann Joseph) completed their formal research internships in my breeding program. Caitlin Vore, my Research Specialist, assisted me in mentoring these students. They worked first in my Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) resistance breeding program learning how to produce inoculum, inoculate plants in both the greenhouse and field environments, rate plants for incidence, severity, Fusarium damaged kernels, and learned about the evaluation of lines for deoxynivalenol (DON) content. When the FHB work was completed, they participated in all aspects of the breeding program. I have since supported the applications (through letters of recommendation and individualized mentoring) of three of them to graduate schools to pursue plant breeding graduate programs How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1. Two papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals (Crop Science; Theoretical and Applied Genetics) with complete citations listed above. 2. Two varieties (listed above) have been licensed and are currently in production in Missouri and surrounding states. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. The work of the breeding program is long term and ongoing. A new variety is under increase for production in Missouri and hundreds of lines are in various stages of testing for potential release. 2. Our Fusarium head blight program is also ongoing with research funded through the US Wheat and Barley Scab Iniative and the USDA-ARS

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. In 2016/2017, two new soft red winter wheat varieties (MO120187 and MO 121058) were released and licensed from my program. Both have excellent yield potential, good disease resistance for the Missouri wheat environment including native resistance to Fusarium head blight, and good to excellent milling and baking quality. 2. As a validation of the markers in Truman, our collaboration concluded with Dr. Paul Murphy and his doctoral student Stine Peterson at NC State, mapping a Bess/Neuse doubled haploid population where Bess is an early maturing,FHB resistant, full sib of Truman and Neuse, an FHB resistant variety from Dr. Murphy's wheat breeding program at NC State. The work was published in Crop Science in 2017 3. In 2016 David Chappell, my MS student whose work involved investigating whether or not canopy spectral reflectance indices and canopy temperature depression could be used as an indirect selection tool for grain yield in wheat, completed his thesis. His work was funded by a NIFA-AFRI grant. 4. In 2016, Truman was genotyped and SNPs were identified that were associated with the FHB resistance in this variety. The work is ongoing.

Publications

• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chappell 2016. Canopy Spectral Reflectance as an Indirect Selection Tool for Yield in Wheat. MS Thesis
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Huang, M., A. Cabrera, A. Hoffstetter, C. Griffey, D. Van Sanford, J. Costa, A. McKendry, S. Cao, and C. Sneller. 2016, Genomic Selection for Wheat Traits and Trait Stability. Theor. Appl. Genet. 129:1697-1710
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Petersen, S., J.H. Lyerly, A.L. McKendry, M.S. Islam, G. Brown-Guedira, C. Cowger, Y. Dong, and J.P. Murphy. 2017. Validation of Fusarium Head Blight Resistance in US Winter Wheat. Crop Sci. 57:1-12

Progress 03/03/16 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:This research will lead to the development and release to Missouri growers, of adapted varieties of soft red winter wheat that have higher yield potential, excellent test weight, good end use quality and resistance to pathogens relevant in the Missouri wheat growing areas. It will also lead to increased breeding efficiency that should accelerate the development of these improved wheat varieties thus enhancing economic return for wheat growers both in Missouri and in the surrounding states. As such, the primary target audiences are wheat growers in Missouri and in surrounding states where Missouri varieties are adapted. Research within the program will reach audiences of journals in which results are disseminated. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated to target groups through both variety release and licensing and through the peer-reviewed literature. In addition, where appropriate, results have been presented at scientific meetings, specifically for this report, at the US Wheat and Barley National Fusarium Head Blight Forum. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Breeding programs are by their nature, long term projects with similar objectives and goals in each year. In order to have continued success in pursuing my goals, it is necessary for me to have new germplasm to replace varieties as they leave the market place. Specific to the goal of continued release, within the breeding program per se, state-wide data were collected on 6 Advanced Yield Trials (509 advanced lines; 3050 plots) and 1500 new lines in preliminary yield nursery testing grown only at Columbia. Additionally, approximately 24,000 early generation head rows and approximately 1000 F2 through F5 generation populations were evaluated.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Outcomes/impacts: This research will lead to the development and release to Missouri growers, of adapted varieties of soft red winter wheat that have higher yield potential, excellent test weight, good end use quality and resistance to pathogens relevant in the Missouri wheat growing areas. It has also lead to increased breeding efficiency to accelerate the development of these improved wheat varieties thus enhancing economic return for wheat growers both in Missouri and in the surrounding states. In 2016, two new soft red winter wheat varieties (MO120187 and MO 121058) were released and licensed from my program. Both have excellent yield potential, good disease resistance for the Missouri wheat environment including native resistance to Fusarium head blight, and good to excellent milling and baking quality. My lines (Ernie, Bess, and Truman) continue to serve as check varieties in all of the winter wheat scab nurseries and Truman continues as the "gold standard" for FHB resistance. No released public or private lines exceed its level of resistance. MO 080104 from my program, which is also a check in the Eastern Nursery and again finished in the top five for yield and test weight in 2016 among all advanced lines being tested. It has a comparable level of resistance to Truman that appears based on pedigree analysis to be genetically different from Truman. In summary, MO lines comprise two of the three resistant checks in the Northern and Southern Uniform FHB Nurseries and one of the four performance checks in the Uniform Eastern Nursery. As a validation of the markers in Truman, our collaboration concluded with Dr. Paul Murphy and his doctoral student Stine Petersen at NC State, mapping a Bess/Neuse doubled haploid mapping population where Bess is an early maturing, FHB resistant, full-sib of Truman and Neuse, an FHB resistant variety out of Paul's program at NC State. This work was published in Crop Science on line in late 2016 and in hard copy in January 2017. My doctoral student, Md. Sarif Islam, who completed his doctoral work in 2015, evaluated 5 components of FHB resistance in a recombinant inbred line population developed from the highly FHB resistant source Truman. He used SSR, DArT and SNP markers in developing two different maps for the population. His QTL work based on his SSR and DArT map was confirmed by QTL work based on his SSR and SNP map. During the process of his work, he discovered novel QTL in 3 chromosome regions, one of which is particularly exciting because it was associated with more than 30% of the variation in 4 of the 5 resistance traits. He was the first to identify such a major QTL in what is commonly known as a native source of resistance. This QTL is arguably the most important QTL yet identified for FHB resistance, not only because of the amount of variation it accounts for but because it is in an adapted background and therefore may not be associated with the negative linkage drag commonly associated with other exotic sources of resistance. Initial work from this study was published in 2015 (Islam, Md. S., G. Brown-Guedira, H.Ohm, D. Van Sanford, and A.L. McKendry. 2015. QTL associated with Fusarium head blight resistance in Truman soft red winter wheat. Euphytica. DOI 10.107/s10681-015-1550-9). SNP work is not yet published. In 2016 David Chappell, my MS student whose work involved investigating whether or not canopy spectral reflectance indices and canopy temperature depression could be used as an indirect selection tool for grain yield in wheat, completed his thesis. His work was funded by a NIFA-AFRI grant.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Huang, M., A. Cabrera, A. Hoffstetter, C. Griffey, D. Van Sanford, J. Costa, A. McKendry, S. Cao, and C. Sneller. 2016, Genomic Selection for Wheat Traits and Trait Stability. Theor. Appl. Genet. 129:1697-1710
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chappell, D.G. 2016. Canopy Spectral Reflectance as an Indirect Selection Tool for Yield in Wheat.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Petersen, S., J.H. Lyerly, A.L. McKendry, M.S. Islam, G. Brown-Guedira, C. Cowger, Y. Dong, and J.P. Murphy. 2017. Validation of Fusarium Head Blight Resistance in US Winter Wheat. Crop Sci. 57:1-12.