Dokumentation der innerartlichen Vielfalt von Kulturarten – Informationssysteme für pflanzengenetische Ressourcen

Die biologische Vielfalt in der Agrarlandschaft wird geprägt von der Vielfalt von Kulturarten im Anbau und von der Vielfalt innerhalb der angebauten Kulturarten (Genotypen- oder Sortenvielfalt). Zur Sicherstellung letzterer wurden mehrere Millionen Muster verschiedener Kulturarten und ihrer wildlebenden Verwandten in Genbanken eingelagert. Moderne Informationstechnik hilft, diese Vielfalt effizient zu erschließen und nutzbar zu machen. Im Europäischen Kooperationsprogramm für pflanzengentische Ressourcen (ECPGR) werden für fruchtartspezifische Arbeitsgruppen zentrale fruchtartspezifischen Datenbanken betrieben. Das Institut für Züchtungsforschung an landwirtschaftlichen Kulturen betreut die Internationale Datenbank für Beta und die Europäische Avena Datenbank. Als typische Anwendungsfälle für die Arbeit an genetischen Ressourcen werden Implementierungen vorgestellt für die verbundene Recherche von Herkunfts- (Passport-) und Merkmalsdaten, für die geographische Verortung von Vorkommen und Merkmalen, für das Management von Feldversuchen zur Charakterisierung und Evaluierung genetischer Ressourcen und für die Fotodokumentation. Stichwörter: Sortenvielfalt, Genbankmuster, fruchtartspezifische Datenbanken, Merkmalsdaten, geographische Verortung, Feldversuchsmanagement.Documentation of intra-specific diversity in crops – information systems for plant genetic resourcesSummaryThe biological diversity in agricultural areas is formed by the diversity of crops and the diversity within crops (diversity of genotypes or cultivars). To conserve the diversity within crops several millions of samples of crop species and their wild relatives have been stored in genebanks. Modern information technology helps to make this diversity accessible and get it into use. In the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) central crop databases are provided to crop specific working groups. The Institute for Breeding Research on Agricultural Crops manages the International Database for Beta (IDBB) and the European Avena Database (EADB). As typical use cases for the work in genetic resources following implementations are shown: combined research for origin (passport) and trait data (characterisation and evaluation); geographic localisation of occurrences and traits; management of field experiments for characterisation and evaluation of crop genetic resources; documentation of images.Keywords: Cultivar diversity, genebank accessions, European central crop databases, trait data, geographic localisation, management of field experiments

Inwertsetzung pflanzengenetischer Ressourcen des Hafers - ein Beitrag zur Kulturartenvielfalt in der Landwirtschaft

Im Rahmen einer unter dem EU-Programm 870/2004 geförderten konzertierten europäischen Aktion „Avena - Genetische Ressourcen für die menschliche Ernährung (AVEQ)“ wurden für den Gesundheitswert in der menschlichen Ernährung relevante Qualitätsmerkmale, Resistenz gegen Fusarium und Mykotoxinkontamintion sowie Kältetoleranz bei einer großen Vielfalt an genetischen Ressourcen des Hafers untersucht. Im Feld wurden an mehreren über Europa verteilten Standorten agronomisch wichtige Merkmale erhoben. Im Labor wurden Protein- und Fettgehalte, Rohfaser und β-Glucangehalt, Mineralstoffe, Antioxidantien und Mykotoxine mit Standardmethoden der Lebensmittelchemie erfasst. Besonders hohe β-Glucangehalte erreichen die diploiden Wildarten A. damascena und A. wiestii. Doch auch im hexaploiden Avena-Genpool wurden erhebliche Variationsbreiten für die untersuchten Qualitätsmerkmale gefunden. Die Dokumentation der Ergebnisse erfolgt durch JKI-ZL im Rahmen der Europäischen Avena Datenbank. Die züchterische Erschließung interessanter Merkmale aus der biologischen Vielfalt innerhalb der Gattung Avena wird am Beispiel der Mehltauresistenz und des β-Glucangehalts dargestellt. Stichwörter: Avena, Qualität, genetische Ressourcen, β-Glucan, Antioxidantien, Mykotoxin, prebreeding Maintenance and development of plant genetic resources for oat improvement – an input to agricultural diversityAbstract In modern plant breeding programmes genetic variation is often not sufficient to reach certain trait combinations. To guard against such situations, plant genetic resources are evaluated and developed via backcrossing programmes with modern cultivars. In a European concerted action with 15 partners in nine European countries genebank material and current commercial varieties were evaluated for traits considered important for future oat breeding in a European premium market. These are quality traits as protein-, fat- and β-glucan content, avenanthramides, resistance to contamination by mycotoxins and tolerance to cold. Relatively high values for β-glucan content were found in wild A. damascena und A. wiestii accessions. But also within the hexaploid Avena genepool large ranges for each trait were found. Results are documented within the European Avena Database (EADB). The development of genetic resources is demonstrated for powdery mildew resistance and the β-glucan content. Keywords: Avena, quality, genetic resources, β-glucan, avenanthramides, mycotoxin, prebreedin

Identifizierung, Aufbau und Ausbau genetischer Schutzgebiete für wildlebende Verwandte unserer Kulturarten (WVK)

Mit Kultur- und Nutzpflanzenarten verwandte Wildarten sind ungeachtet ihres großen Potenzials als Quellen neuartiger genetischer Variation für die Pflanzenzüchtung nicht ausreichend geschützt. Zur Verbesserung ihres langfristigen Schutzes fordern sowohl internationale als auch nationale Biodiversitätsstrategien die Umsetzung einer In-situ-Erhaltungsstrategie, insbesondere für jene Arten, die für den Menschen von unmittelbarer Bedeutung sind. Zur Operationalisierung dieser Strategie wurde im Rahmen des vom Julius Kühn-Institut koordinierten AEGRO-Projektes die Konzeption des genetischen Schutzgebietes erprobt. Für vier Kulturpflanzengattungen (Avena, Beta/Patellifolia, Brassica, Prunus) wurde das Konzept bis zur Anwendungsreife weiterentwickelt. Nur vier Entscheidungsschritte sind notwendig, um aus einer Vielzahl in Europa verbreiteter Arten jene Vorkommen auszuwählen, für die der Ausbau eines genetischen Schutzareals erforderlich ist. Zur Unterstützung dieser Vier-Schritte-Methode wurden das Informationssystem „Population Level Information System“ (PLIS) und zur Dokumentation der Ergebnisse des Auswahlverfahrens das Informationssystem „Genetic Reserve Information System (GenResIS) entwickelt. In GenResIS sind detaillierte ökogeographische Informationen zu 52 genetischen Schutzgebieten und den darin vorkommenden Arten zu finden. Diese Schutzgebiete dienen nicht nur zur Bewahrung oder Wiederherstellung eines guten Erhaltungszustandes von Pflanzenarten in ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum, sondern auch der Erhaltung von Genen für die Pflanzenzüchtung, wie exemplarisch am Beispiel von Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima als Quelle der Resistenz gegen das Beet Necrotic Yellow Vein Virus (BNYVV) erläutert wird. Stichwörter: Genetische Ressourcen, In-situ-Erhaltungsstrategie, genetische Schutzgebiete, WildartenIdentification, establishment and development of genetic reserves for crop wild relatives (CWR)AbstractDespite their great potential as sources of novel genetic variation for plant breeding crop wild relatives are not protected sufficiently. International as well as national biodiversity strategies call therefore the implementation of the in situ conservation strategy, in particular for those species of immediate relevance to mankind. The genetic reserve concept was tested in the context of the AEGRO project, coordinated by the Julius Kühn-Institut, to operationalise the in situ conservation strategy and to develop the concept for the genera Avena, Beta/Patellifolia, Brassica, Prunus to the point that it can be put into use. Only four decision steps are required to determine those occurrences among the multitude of species distributed in Europe for which the establishment of a genetic reserve is essential. The information system “Population Level Information System” (PLIS) was developed to support the four step methodology; the “Genetic Reserve Information System” (GenResIS) was established to document the results of the selection procedure. GenResIS provides detailed ecogeographic information on 52 genetic reserves as well as on species occurring within these areas. The reserves do not only serve the protection or recovery of species in their natural habitat. They also serve the maintenance of genes for plant breeding as explained using Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, the source of resistance against the Beet Necrotic Yellow Vein Virus (BNYVV), as an example. Keywords: Genetic resources, in situ conservation strategy, genetic reserve, wild specie

Nutrients and soil structure influence furovirus infection of wheat

Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV) and Soil-borne cereal mosaic virus (SBCMV), genus Furovirus, family Virgaviridae, cause significant crop losses in cereals. The viruses are transmitted by the soil-borne plasmodiophorid Polymyxa graminis. Inside P. graminis resting spores, the viruses persist in the soil for long time, which makes the disease difficult to combat. To open up novel possibilities for virus control, we explored the influence of physical and chemical soil properties on infection of wheat with SBWMV and SBCMV. Moreover, we investigated, whether infection rates are influenced by the nutritional state of the plants. Infection rates of susceptible wheat lines were correlated to soil structure parameters and nutrient contents in soil and plants. Our results show that SBWMV and SBCMV infection rates decrease the more water-impermeable the soil is and that virus transmission depends on pH. Moreover, we found that contents of several nutrients in the soil (e.g. phosphorous, magnesium, zinc) and in planta (e.g. nitrogen, carbon, boron, sulfur, calcium) affect SBWMV and SBCMV infection rates. The knowledge generated may help paving the way towards development of a microenvironment-adapted agriculture

Field experiments with Avena genetic resources – an european project (AVEQ)

In a cooperative project with fifteen partners from nine European countries, in 2008, genebank material and current commercial varieties (323 cultivated and 17 wild accessions) were evaluated for traits related to quality in human consumption, mycotoxins and cold tolerance. The work is done in 10 work packages: 1) Project management and coordination; 2) Selection and multiplication of a project working collection; 3) Field experiments and sampling seeds for quality analysis; 4) Field experiments with artificial Fusarium inoculation; 5) Fusarium and mycotoxin analysis; 6) Analysis for protein – including Avenins, fat and minerals; 7) Analysis for dietary fibre and ß-glucan; 8) Analysis for antioxidants, including Avenanthramides; 9) Analysis for cold tolerance; 10) Project documentation and internet portal. In Work package 3, “Field experiments and sampling seeds for quality analysis” were involved seven countries distributed all over Europe (Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden). The activities from WP3 were coordinated by Romanian partner. Field experiments were laid out as augmented block designs with 11 standards (Argentina, Auteuil, Belinda, Evora, Genziana, Jaak, Krezus, Mina, Mures and Saul) in five replications. Plot size ranged, from 2.0m2 to 3.0m2 . The descriptors observed by all partners were: days to heading, days to maturity, crop height, lodging at immature stage, lodging at mature stage, panicle shape, occurrence of diseases, lemma colour, yield, seed weight and test weight, Harvest results (yield, seed weight, test weight, moisture) were put on line into a project information system (http://eadb.bafz.de/aveqprod/). All data will be made available with the end of the project in the European Avena Database (http://eadb.bafz.de) Acknowledgements: This project is funded by the European Commission, DG AGRI within the framework of council regulation 870/2004 and co-funded by Peter Kölln KGaA, Elmshorn, Germany, Emco spol. s. r. o., Prague, Czech Republic, and Gemeinschaft zur Förderung der privaten deutschen Pflanzenzüchtung e.V. (GFP), Bonn, Germany

Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen zum Strategiediskurs für einen nachhaltigen Pflanzenbau

Für den rationalen gesellschaftlichen Diskurs zur Lösung der vielfältigen Zielkonflikte auf dem Weg zu einem nachhaltigen Pflanzenbausind wissenschaftliche Fakten über die Beziehungen zwischen den Zielen unabdingbar. Daher hat die Gesellschaft für Pflanzenbauwissen-schaften wissenschaftliche Befunde zu den Themenbereichen Biodiversität, Klimarelevanz und Klimaresilienz, Nährstoffmanagement,Pflanzenschutz, Bodenschutz und Produktion nachwachsender Rohstoffe zusammengestellt und den bestehenden Forschungsbedarfidentifiziert. Nach einem Executive Summary, das die Befunde schlaglichtartig darstellt, werden die Themenbereiche im Einzelnen ausgeführt. Ziel dieses Papiers ist nicht, Empfehlungen für die politische Entscheidungsfindung abzugeben, sondern die öffentliche Diskussiondurch Bereitstellung von Sachinformationen zu unterstützen.Scientific facts about the relationships between the goals are indispensable for the rational social discourse on solving the various conflict-ing goals on the way to sustainable crop production. Therefore, the German Society for Agronomy has compiled scientific findings on thetopics of biodiversity, climate relevance and climate resilience, nutrient management, crop protection, soil protection and production ofrenewable raw materials, and identified the existing need for research. After an executive summary that highlights the findings, the subjectareas are explained in detail. The purpose of this paper is not to make recommendations for policy-making, but to support the publicdebate by providing factual information

Quality characteristics of European avena genetic resources collections

International audienceThe research project "Avena genetic resources for quality in human consumption" (AVEQ, 2007-2011) aimed at the agronomic and qualitative evaluation of European oat germplasm; for this purpose a working collection with more than 600 accessions, including modern commercial cultivars and wild species, was used. The working collection was split in two groups and field grown in 2008 and 2009 in seven different locations: Estonia, Sweden, Poland, France, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria. For each accession morphological and technological traits were registered. The results of this study indicated that modern varieties are significantly superior to old varieties and wild accessions in terms of yield and grain technological quality (seed weight and test weight). A wide variability was observed for quantitative and qualitative traits, and some genotypes potentially interesting for breeding programs were identified

Genome-wide association analysis for lodging tolerance and plant height in a diverse European hexaploid oat collection

Sensitivity to lodging of oat varieties has been reduced in the last decades through the introduction of dwarfing genes. However, lodging may still cause significant yield loss, underscoring the need for new oat varieties with higher levels of lodging tolerance. In the present study, we analysed lodging and plant height in a collection of European oat accessions including landraces, old and modern varieties, in order to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for identifying markers associated to lodging tolerance. This collection has been recently genotyped by the Infinium 6K SNP array for oat and SNP data were analysed as continuous intensity ratios, rather than as discrete genotypes (Tumino et al. 2016, Theor Appl Genet 129, pp. 1711–1724). Phenotypes for lodging severity, plant height and growth habit were collected under natural conditions in eight European countries. Plant height correlated to lodging severity as previously observed in many studies, explaining about 30% of lodging variation. GWAS analyses detected six significant associations for lodging and two for plant height. These results indicate that GWAS can successfully be used for identifying markers associated to lodging in oat, even though lodging is a quantitative trait influenced by several plant characteristics.</p

Population structure and genome-wide association analysis for frost tolerance in oat using continuous SNP array signal intensity ratios

Key message: Infinium SNP data analysed as continuous intensity ratios enabled associating genotypic and phenotypic data from heterogeneous oat samples, showing that association mapping for frost tolerance is a feasible option.Abstract: Oat is sensitive to freezing temperatures, which restricts the cultivation of fall-sown or winter oats to regions with milder winters. Fall-sown oats have a longer growth cycle, mature earlier, and have a higher productivity than spring-sown oats, therefore improving frost tolerance is an important goal in oat breeding. Our aim was to test the effectiveness of a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) for mapping QTLs related to frost tolerance, using an approach that tolerates continuously distributed signals from SNPs in bulked samples from heterogeneous accessions. A collection of 138 European oat accessions, including landraces, old and modern varieties from 27 countries was genotyped using the Infinium 6K SNP array. The SNP data were analyzed as continuous intensity ratios, rather than converting them into discrete values by genotype calling. PCA and Ward’s clustering of genetic similarities revealed the presence of two main groups of accessions, which roughly corresponded to Continental Europe and Mediterranean/Atlantic Europe, although a total of eight subgroups can be distinguished. The accessions were phenotyped for frost tolerance under controlled conditions by measuring fluorescence quantum yield of photosystem II after a freezing stress. GWAS were performed by a linear mixed model approach, comparing different corrections for population structure. All models detected three robust QTLs, two of which co-mapped with QTLs identified earlier in bi-parental mapping populations. The approach used in the present work shows that SNP array data of heterogeneous hexaploid oat samples can be successfully used to determine genetic similarities and to map associations to quantitative phenotypic traits