Wheat: A founder Crop of the CGIAR- Where does it

fit in the New CGIAR?

Wayne Powell

March 28, 2014

Challenge Led Inspired by Innovation

The expectations of Science & Research has

changed dramatically

•Explosion in our scientific understanding

•Opportunity to connect scientific excellence with impact

by focussing on the Grand Challenges

Founder Crop of Civilization

CIMMYT developed high yielding varieties for staple cereals that were the engine of the Green Revolution

Evolution of the CGIAR

Increased and Sustained Investment:

Doubling of CGIAR funding in five years (2008-2013)

CGIAR’s research is carried out by 16 Research Programs

(CRPs), working in close collaboration with hundreds of partners

worldwide.

What WHEAT is aiming for

• An added value of wheat produced equaling USD 1.3 billion by 2020.

• An additional USD 8.1 billion in wheat produced by 2030.

• Enough wheat to feed an additional 56 million consumers by 2020.

• Wheat to feed an additional 397 million by 2030.

• Breaking the wheat yield barrier by 50%.

http://wheat.org

Expected Impact

Comparison of maize & wheat yields

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

19

86

19

88

19

90

19

92

19

94

19

96

19

98

20

00

20

02

20

04

20

06

Source: Defra & USDA

t/ha

D-genome gap analysis

Bread wheat

A. tauschii

CIMMYT synthetics

• Ae tauschii falls into two clades,

• bread wheat exploits narrow sector of diversity,

• Complements CIMMYT synthetics.

Clade A

Clade B

Huw Jones

Selection of Diverse Tetraploid Donors

Accessions pre-selected

based on genetic

diversity at SSR loci,

cpSSR loci, GPC gene

and geographic data

found to be

representative of the

diversity in the

collection.

DArT genotyping of

90 wheat accessions

using AABB chip

Plastotype 2

0.1

dic6

27996

14078

tios

17202

14235

dic15

IG138654 C3

IG138588 G1

PI351442 B1cortez PH

robegus

shamrockPHSpark

PI294573 C5

ALCHEMY

Mercia

Rialto

EINSTEINHerewardCharger

Paragon PHXi19ASHBY

pi192569 A1

IG138724 D3PI278395 C1IG138652 E2

PI136567 B2

IG127887 3AIG92851 H2IG127865 E1

dic13

dic18dic199

4308

dic34dic22

18083

1821018209

16608

dic12bdic12a

dic7

dic147

dic42

dic100

dic84

dic79

dic82

dic49

dic96

dic65 dic53dic97adic97

dic67

dic50dic98dic114dic80

dic72dic71dic70 dic117

dic125

dic28a

dic45 dic31

dic54

dic51

dic111dic90

dic57

dic56

dic108adic108

dic63

dic107

18535

dic94

dic93

dic145

dic141dic121

dic87

dic129

dic132

dic120

0.1

hex

hexaploid

T. dicoccum

T. dicoccum

T. dicoccoides

y = 0.8655x + 0.4495

R² = 0.7951

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Low

N -

Gra

in y

ield

t h

a-1(8

5%

DM

)

HIgh N - Grain yield t ha-1 (85%DM)

RL Check cultivars

SHWs

Watkins lines

LSD (5%)

Orville Vogel,

Wash State U.

Norman Borlaug,

CIMMYT

Ed Wilhelm, NIAB/JIC:

Determine Rht-A1, Rht-B1,

and Rht-D1 genetic

variation and linked genes

Rht genes •1960s green revolution:

• Reduced lodging

• Yield increases

•Rht-B1b (Rht1) and Rht-D1b (Rht2)

characterized and mapped (Gale and

Youssefian, 1985)

•Rht genes cloned and identified as

DELLA proteins (Peng et al., 1999)

Rht Allelic Diversity (all sequences)

0 bp 1870 bp -1750 bp 2400 bp

Rht-A1 •16 indels (1-6 bp)

•46 SNPs

•1 indel (5 bp)

•2 SNPs •8 SNPs (3 AA changes)

Rht-B1

•6 indels (1-197 bp)

•24 SNPs

-356

160

bp

ins.

-591

197

bp

ins.

-694

16

bp

del.

•10 SNPs (5 AA changes).

•1 bp insertion

•2 indels (1-3 bp)

•4 SNPs

1 bp indel

Rht-D1 •7 indels (1-3 bp)

•17 SNPs

•2 indels (3 bp)

•2 SNPs •8 SNPs (4 AA changes)

(5’) (ORF) (3’)

Wilhelm et al. (2013) Theor Appl Gen 126:1733

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

A B D A B D A B D A B D

Overall (~40 acc.)

2x, 4x wheat (2-4 acc.)

Bread wheat (37 acc.)

Bread wheat -UK (12 acc.)

π x

10

-3

A01; 1

A02; 28

A03; 2

A04; 1

A05; 2

A06; 1

A07; 1 A08; 1 A09; 1

B01; 9

B02; 1

B03; 4

B04; 1

B05; 1

B06; 6B07; 2

B08; 1

B09; 5

B10; 4

B11; 2

B12; 1B13; 1

D01; 15

D02; 5

D03; 11

D04; 4

D05; 1 D06; 1D07; 1

Haplotype Dictionary

Norin 10 Ancestry

Daruma

Shiro-Daruma

Glassy Fultz

Fultz Daruma

Turkey Red

Norin 10

Brevor

Norin 10/Brevor-14

x

x

x

Historical Pedigree Marker results

Rht-B1b + Rht-D1a

Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b (minor occurrence of Rht-B1b)

not available (Shou Fultz = Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b)

Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a (Furtz Daruma = Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b)

Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a

Rht-B1b + Rht-D1b

Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a

Rht-B1b + Rht-D1b

Red = cultivars historically thought to

carry Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b

Wilhelm et al. (2013) Plant Breeding 132:539

• Heterozygosity • Large genome sizes

• Repetitive regions • Polyploidy

(homoeologues) / paleopolyploidy

Complex plant genomes

Rice

0.4Gb

Bread wheat

17Gb

Human

3Gb

Heterozygosity, repeats and homoeologues

confound assembly tools

Barley

5.1Gb

A

B

D

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

144x

112x

30x

88x

91x

54x

68x

76x

109x

112x

28x

46x

59x

37x

54x

77x

120x

97x

147x 85x

113x

36x

116x

154x

241x 68x

48x

158x

126x

173x

137x

80x

63x 141x

121x 195x

55x

145x

107x

220x

94x

Wheat CSS sequencing coverage

Breeding powered by genome technologies-0pportunity wheat CRP

Products & Knowledge

based on principles of

sustainable

intensification

Platform for

hypothesis testing.

MAGIC F2

derived

F2 & self Elite MAGIC & self

P (no recomb) 0.241 0.036

# tracts 2.6 4.7

# founders 2 3.5

The NIAB Elite MAGIC population

The NIAB Elite MAGIC population

28210315 complete

pedigree

@NIABTAG

#bgri2014

CGIAR Research Programmes

• Long term mission driven research

– Ambitious programmes tackling problems beyond the reach of

others.

• Sustainable Agricultural Intensification

– Intensification for Genetics, Agro-Ecology and Socioeconomics

– Framework for delivery built around Products (Public Goods) and

Knowledge.

• Institutional Capacity and Capability (skills) to deliver with a strong

partnership ethos.

• Strong Leadership and management commitment

• Beacon for innovation

• Recognising that Ag Research for Development is data intensive

providing opportunities for systems based approaches.

Global leadership for International Public

Wheat Breeding.

• Intellectual leadership for 21st Century breeding.

• Informatics and statistical/population genetics to inform, support

and re-design breeding programmes.

• Role model for the exploitation of genetic resources in breeding.

– Pro-active management of diversity in breeding programmes for

Sustainable Agricultural Intensification.

– Managing and monitoring key recombination events.

– World class phenotyping hubs.

• Partner of choice for wheat research and breeding for the

developing world.

• Forging creative new alliances with partners, funders and business

where risks and benefits are shared equitably.

• Collaboratively building capacity & capability with partners in the

Developing world.

The Pursuit of Ignorance

Sydney Brenner

“Which type of science to fund is simple:

all science is problem driven and should be

judged by the importance of the problem and the quality of the solutions

provided.”

MAGIC

An innovative approach to

dissecting the genetic

control of complex traits in

wheat

Alison Bentley, P Howell, J Cockram, G

Rose, T Barber, R Horsnell, N Gosman, P

Bansept, M Scutari, A Greenland and I

Mackay

@NIABTAG B

GR

I Technic

al W

ork

sh

op

Marc

h 2

014 #

bgri

2014