Institut für Züchtungsforschung an landwirtschaftlichen Kulturen
Organic oat production has seen significant growth throughout Germany in recent years, driven by increasing demands for regionally and organically grown oat. As an increasing portion of the oat crop is processed into oat drinks, oat production contributes to greenhouse gas reduction via cow's milk substitution. Better varieties and more effective oat breeding are needed to meet future demand. In the present project, three focal points have been defined to increase the efficiency of oat breeding: 1.) Durable smut resistance: Based on the findings of finished project ‘KLAR’ (FKZ 2815NA107), resistance mapping to validate GWAS results is planned, investigations on the necessary level of blight resistance and cleistogamy, as well as the investigation of smut isolates. 2) Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS): Here, cycles 2 to 3 of a RGS programme will be run with focus on yield and quality. 3) Priming with microorganisms in oats and their effect on biotic (smut and crown rust) and abiotic stress tolerance (drought stress). For the planned work, two JKI institutes, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Forschung & Züchtung Dottenfelderhof and Saatzucht Bauer will cooperate closely under coordination by GFPi.The chromosomal positions of selected resistance genes will be validated for the improvement of the durability of the resistance to smut (work package, WP1). For this purpose, suitable populations are genotyped and phenotyped for resistance. In the course of this work, lines with new resistance gene combinations are also being sought. In breeding practice, the question arises regarding the needed levels of resistance and cleistogamy to prevent damage in seed production. This question will be answered by trials with 49 medium- to highly-susceptible oat lines with a high range for cleistogamy. The seed of the 49 lines will be seeded in Groß Lüsewitz and at Dottenfelder Hof. Ustilago avenae is known to develop races with various virulences and therefore the current virulence spectrum in Germany will be described using a differential set of cultivars and respective smut isolates. In WP2 on recurrent genomic selection, the data obtained in the FUGE project (FKZ 28AIN02A20) will be used for two further crossing and selection steps. These selection and crossing steps are followed by the selfing of promising crosses and the testing of the progeny in multi-site field trials for ecologically relevant traits (yield, weed suppression, thousand grain mass, hull content). WP3 is focused on priming with microorganisms. A defined panel of 25 oat genotypes will be investigated for differentiation of priming capacity with regard to response to crown rust, smut and drought stress. The rhizobacterium Ensifer meliloti will be applied as priming inducer together with inoculum-free control treatments. As microbial comparative products already established on the market, rhizobacteria of the genus Bacillus, as rhizosphere-competent fungi the Trichoderma preparations of the company Koppert and a mycorrhizal fungal mixture (INOQ GmbH) as well as a microbial biostimulant preparation of PHYTOsolution will be used.
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
