Progress 05/01/23 to 04/30/24
Outputs
Target Audience:- Project results were presented at the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference (PAG31) on January 12-17, 2024 as oral presentation as well as poster. PAG31 was attended by more than 3000 researchers. In the oral presentation by Upinder Gill, ~60 attendees were present and the poster was visited by ~30 researchers. - Project results were presented at the 5th Canadian Wheat Symposium held on November 13-16, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The oral presentation by Upinder Gill was attended by ~100 researchers from Canada and the United States. In total, the project results were shared with minimum of~190 researchers. Changes/Problems:There was a delay in hiring a postdoctoral researcher to work on this project. The delay was due to the unavailability of a suitable candidate. Although, it has not impacted the project progress but it may have impacted the rate ofexpenditures. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project training a PhD student and a postdoc in crop genetics research How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results were presented to scientific community via oral and poster presentations at the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference 31 (PAG 31) at San Diego, CA on January 12-17, 2024and the 5th Canadian Wheat Symposium at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada on November 13-16, 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The project progress in on track. The following activities will be accomplished under each objective: Objective 1: Development of genetic, genomic, and germplasm resources inAegilops umbellulata. The Ae. umbellulata panel of 396 lines will be genotyped after high-quality DNA isolation and used for performing diversity analysis as well as to develop core set of accessions. We will continue to develop synthetic hexaploids and perform cytological examination of the developed germplasm. Objective 2:Assessment of stress tolerance inAegilops umbellulataand identification of associated genomic loci. The panel of 396 accessions will be phenotyped with multiple races of leaf rust and a genome wide association analysis will be performed to identify resistance loci. A subset of 50 core accessions will be evalauted for heat tolerance to identify tolerant genotypes.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Development of genetic, genomic, and germplasm resources inAegilops umbellulata. The project was initiated to develop genetic, genomic, and germplasm resources for the largely unstudied wheat wild relative, Aegilops umbellulata. At the current reporting period, the following accomplishments have been achieved under each sub-objective: (i) Development of a high quality chromosome-scale reference genome of Ae. umbellulata: we have successfully generated a high-quality telomere to telomere genome of an accession PI 554389 of Ae. umbellulata. The sequenced genome revealed novel information on the evolution of triticeae species. In addition, we resequenced 20 diverse genomes of Ae. umbellulata exceeding the project measurable outcomes. (ii) Development of a core set of Ae. umbellulata accessions that represent the maximum species diversity:The activities under this sub-objective are on track. We have generated seed using single seed descent method to obtain high genetic purity. Tissue samples were collected for DNA isolation and genotyping. (iii) Development of synthetic hexaploids for introgression of traits of interest:We have developed crosses of eight Ae. umbellulata accessions with tetraploid wheat to develop synthetic hexaploids with AABBUU genome. Currently, we have successfully achieved a synthetic hexaploid of sequenced accession PI554389. Seven crosses are at haploid (ABU) stage and will be subjected to colchicine treatment for chromosome doubling. We also exceeded this sub-objective by developing eight biparental crosses of Ae. umbellulata resequenced accessions that are currently at F1 and F2 stages. Assessment of stress tolerance inAegilops umbellulataand identification of associated genomic loci. The following accomplishments were achieved for each sub-objective for the current reporting period: (i) Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Ae. umbellulata for leaf rust resistance:He have comprehensively phenotyped 20 resequenced Ae. umbellulata accessions for five wheat diseases including multiple races of wheat stem rust, leaf rust, stripe rust, tan spot and bacterial leaf streak. Ae. umbellulata accessions with high levels of resistance against all five diseases were identified. Phenotypic evaluations of 396 accessions against wheat leaf rust races is under way. (ii) Characterization of heat tolerance in Ae. umbellulata: We have successfully standardized the heat stress tolerance protocol for wheat and wheat wild relatives. Heat tolerance of 20 resequenced Ae. umbellulata lines has successfully accomplished.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Jatinder Singh, Santosh Gudi, Peter J. Maughan, Zhaohui Liu, James Kolmer, Meinan Wang, Xianming Chen, Matthew Rouse, Pauline Lasserre-Zuber, Helene Rimbert, Sunish Sehgal, Jason Fiedler, Fr�d�ric Choulet, Maricelis Acevedo, Rajeev Gupta, Upinder Gill (2024). Genomes of Aegilops umbellulata provide new insights into unique structural variations and genetic diversity in the U-genome for wheat improvement. Plant Biotechnology Journal (Under Review)
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