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E-mail:
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SID 4


Annual/Interim Project
Report for Period 1st year
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Project details
2. Project title
Crop improvement for resource-use efficiency
Dan McGonigle
3. Defra Project Manager
4. Name and
address of
contractor
Warwick HRI
University of Warwick
Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry
Warwickshire
Postcode
CV4 8UW
5. Contractor’s Project Manager
6. Project:
Miriam Gifford
start date .................
01/10/2010
end date ..................
30/09/2012
This form is in Word format
and boxes may be expanded
or reduced, as appropriate.
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
WU0128
1. Defra Project code
Page 1 of 6
Scientific objectives
7.
Please list the scientific objectives as set out in the contract. If necessary these can be expressed in an
abbreviated form. Indicate where amendments have been agreed with the Defra Project Manager, giving the
date of amendment.
1. To improve the resolution of recently discovered QTL for water and phosphorus-use efficiency
in Brassica oleracea by the fine mapping of introgressions in substitution lines.
2. To identify new loci and alleles associated with water and phosphorus-use efficiency and root
architecture in a model plant genome by using the most recent advances in allelic association
mapping in Arabidopsis thaliana.
3. To validate QTL for PUE, WUE and root architecture by testing candidate gene alleles for
association with traits in Brassica crop species.
Summary of Progress
8.
Please summarise, in layperson’s terms, scientific progress since the last report/start of the project and
how this relates to the objectives. Please provide information on actual results where possible rather
than merely a description of activities.
Twenty first century agriculture faces a massive challenge to provide food for the growing world
population. The FAO forecasts that global food production will need to increase by over 40% by 2030, and
70% by 2050. In addition, climate change means future crops will be grown in increasingly unfavourable
environments, with problems of water limitation, salinisation, low nutrient availability and changing
geographical distributions of plant pathogens. Water and nutrient use efficiencies are key targets for future
crop improvements because of the increasing pressures on fresh water resources, the declining
availability of key nutrients such as phosphorus, the energy required for production of nitrogen fertilizers
and the need to reduce nutrient leaching to water courses. Therefore crops with enhanced nutrient and
water use would make a significant contribution to low input, sustainable crop production.
Two of the major parts of our work have been to identify new parts of the plant genome (genes) that
improve the ability of Brassica plants to use (i) water and (ii) phosphorus (Objective 1). To do this we have
been using sets of Brassica plant relatives that are genetically closely related to each other but that have
different efficiencies for the nutrients. We can correlate the amount of resource use efficiency with the
genes that each line contains in order to figure out which gene(s) are responsible for the changed
efficiency. At the start of the project we had identified families of Brassica that had altered water and
phosphorus use efficiency and some candidate parts of the genome that we thought were important, but
we had not identified the important genes. So far in this work we have been able to use ‘fine mapping’ with
markers that allow us to identify parts of the genome and narrow down our search window.
A model plant for work on resource use efficiency is the weed Arabidopsis thaliana. This plant species
grows very rapidly and there is a large collection of very close relatives that allow us to narrow down on
the genes that control traits such as water use efficiency very quickly. We are using these Arabidopsis
plant lines for work on nutrient use efficiency (Objective 2) in parallel to the Brassica plant work since
discoveries in one of the species can be tested and ‘translated’ to the other easily. So far in this part of the
project we have worked out which of the large collection of relatives are most useful for testing our traits of
interest (phosphorus use efficiency, water use efficiency, and root size). This is based on identifying a
spread of relatives that have enough genetic diversity to make our correlation analysis easier; from this we
have chosen a set of 96 Arabidopsis thaliana varieties. We have also chosen three combinations of
different levels of nitrogen and phosphorus under which to analyse our traits of interest. This will allow us
to identify plants that can grow very well even if levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are low – a property
that would be very useful for developing sustainable crops.
** See attached scientific summary of progress.
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
Page 2 of 6
Amendments to project
9.
Are the current scientific objectives appropriate for the remainder of the project? ................. YES
NO
If NO, explain the reasons for any change giving the financial, staff and time implications.
Contractors cannot alter scientific objectives without the agreement of the Defra Project Manager.
Progress in relation to targets
10. (a) List the agreed milestones for the year/period under report as set out in the contract or any agreed
contract variation.
It is the responsibility of the contractor to check fully that all milestones have been met and to
provide a detailed explanation when they have not been achieved.
Milestone
Milestones met
Target date
Number
Title
1
M1ii.a F2 seed for SL134 obtained for
future fine-mapping work
2
4
5
13
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
M1i.b The specific introgression in line
SL118 that is responsible for conferring
low WUE and PUE determined
M2ii.a New, more balanced
Arabidopsis populations for GWAM
studies determined
M2ii.c WUE, PUE, NUE and root
development data for Arabidopsis
GWAM studies collected
Complete 1st year annual report
Page 3 of 6
In full
On time
30/04/2010
yes
yes
30/06/2010
yes
yes
31/01/2010
yes
yes
31/09/2010
yes
yes
30/09/2012
yes
yes
(b) Do the remaining milestones look realistic? ..................................................................... YES
If you have answered NO, please provide an explanation.
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
Page 4 of 6
NO
Publications and other outputs
11. (a) Please give details of any outputs, e.g. published papers/presentations, meetings attended during this
reporting period.
Papers:
GREENWOOD, D.J., ZHANG, K, HILTON, H.W. and THOMPSON, A.J. (2010) Opportunities for
improving irrigation efficiency with quantitative models, soil water sensors and wireless technology
Journal of Agricultural Science 148: 1-16
LÓPEZ-RÁEZ, J.A., KOHLEN, W., CHARNIKHOVA, T., MULDER, P., UNDAS, A., SERGEANT,
M.J., VERSTAPPEN, F., BUGG, T.D.H., THOMPSON, A.J., RUYTER-SPIRA, C. and
BOUWMEESTER, H. (2010) Does abscisic acid affect strigolactone biosynthesis? New Phytologist.
187: 343-354
Presentations at tech transfer events:
THOMPSON A.J. (Nov. 2009) “Water use efficiency in Brassicas”; presentation at the Vegetable
Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN) stakeholders meeting. Warwick HRI, UK.
HAMMOND J. (Nov. 2009) “Phosphorus use in Brassicas”; presentation at the Vegetable Genetic
Improvement Network (VeGIN) stakeholders meeting. Warwick HRI, UK.
THOMPSON A. J. (Sept. 2010) Organiser of Warwick Water Day II: Precision irrigation: integration of
new technologies. Including presentation by AJT: “WaterBee – development of low cost, intelligent
irrigation scheduling”. Warwick HRI, UK.
Presentations at scientific events:
THOMPSON, A.J. (Sept. 2010) Abiotic Stress Session organiser and speaker: “Improving water use
efficiency and water capture in tomato: transgenic and QTL approaches”. Sol2010: International
conference on the Solanaceae. Dundee, UK.
GIFFORD, M.L. (June 2010) Wenner-Gren Foundations (WGF) symposium. Invited speaker:
“Systems biology of root responses to nitrate: insights from natural variants”. Adaptive Responses
During Plant Development and Evolution. Fiskebäckskil, Sweden.
GIFFORD, M.L. (Jan 2010) Invited speaker: University of Birmingham Seminar Series. Title:
“Understanding developmental mechanisms using cell-specific systems biology”. Birmingham, UK.
THOMPSON, A.J. (June 2010) Invited speaker: University of Nottingham Seminar Series. Title:
“Improving water productivity in crops”. Nottingham, UK.
THOMPSON, A.J. (Oct. 2009) Invited speaker: 3rd International Conference on Integrated
Approaches to Sustain and Improve Plant Production Under Drought Stress (Interdrought III),
Shanghai, China.
Other meetings attended:
RYDER, C. (May 2010) UK Brassica Research Community meeting, Rothamsted Research, UK.
(b) Have opportunities for exploiting Intellectual
Property arising out of this work been identified? ............................................................ YES
NO
If YES, please give details.
The aim of this project is to produce tools and materials suitable for breeding new crop varieties that
have improved water and nutrient use efficiency. Therefore this project could lead to IP on genetic
loci and molecular markers in Brassica for the selection and breeding of varieties with improved
nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency, improved water use efficiency and increased root
size/growth. As the results develop we will identify specific opportunities and we are well placed to be
able to identify outlets for this through our participation in e.g. the VeGIN project meetings.
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
Page 5 of 6
(c) Has any other action been taken to initiate Knowledge Transfer?................................... YES
If YES, please give details.
Future work
12. Please comment briefly on any new scientific opportunities which may arise from the project.
Declaration
13. I declare that the information I have given is correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Name
Position held
SID 4 (Rev. 3/06)
Brian Thomas
Acting Head of Department
Page 6 of 6
Date
30/09/2010
NO