Project 3. Mycotoxin Prevention in Cereal Crops by Enhanced Host Plant ResistanceSeminar, 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

Resistant spikes Susceptible

Plastic bags give humidity

Inoculation

Replace this by DNA technologies Select for

reliable genetic markers (”fingerprints”) rather than field selection

Transgenic resistance by strengthening the natural plant defenses

Resistance allele marker >

Progeny from crosses with Sumai 3

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

Gene Expression Data~500,000 spots22,840 barley genes

Barley1 GeneChip

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

Non-infected control

Infected transgene

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!