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Brian Steffenson,UM Åsmund Bjørnstad NLH

Learn about preventing Fusarium head blight in cereal crops to avoid yield and quality losses from mycotoxin contamination. Discover how enhanced host plant resistance can combat this widespread issue.

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Brian Steffenson,UM Åsmund Bjørnstad NLH

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  1. Project 3. Mycotoxin Prevention in Cereal Crops by Enhanced Host Plant ResistanceSeminar, Staur Norway 16-17. August. 2004. Brian Steffenson,UM Åsmund Bjørnstad NLH

  2. The problem: head blight caused by Fusarium fungi • Shrivelled seeds • Yield and quality losses • Mycotoxin contamination

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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

  6. To identify resistance to FHB: Costly and variable field trials Inoculation Plastic bags give humidity Resistant spikes Susceptible

  7. Replace this by DNA technologies • Select for reliable genetic markers (”fingerprints”) rather than field selection • Transgenic resistance by strengthening the natural plant defenses Progeny from crosses with Sumai 3 Resistance allele marker >

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Barley1 GeneChip Gene Expression Data ~500,000 spots 22,840 barley genes

  13. 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)

  14. 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

  15. Transgenic technologies in barleyEssential clue: express the transgene during early seed development (work in Ås, Dr. S. Klemsdal) GP-UT ltp2-ech42 ltp2nag1 S35-ech42

  16. Transgenic Fusarium resistance Non-infected control Infected control Infected transgene Courtesy: Dr. S. Klemsdal

  17. 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

  18. 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)

  19. 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

  20. Have a good crop!

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