Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research
Project Number: 2050-21000-038-017-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2020
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
To identify genes conferring resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB) and spot form Net Blotch in spring malting barley; and develop linked molecular markers and lab-based screening methods useful for rapid improvement of barley disease resistance.
Approach:
Disease resistance is critical to producing barley that meets the quality needs of the malting industry. Mapping populations have been developed from crosses between Aberdeen, Idaho, germplasm possessing excellent malt quality and promising levels of quantitative resistance to FHB; and elite barley developed outside this breeding program with excellent malt quality and resistance to foliar diseases, including the spot form of Net Blotch (SPNB). This project will coordinate field evaluations of barley resistance to FHB between North Dakota and Idaho, and will evaluate resistance to the spot form of Net blotch in North Dakota. Information about FHB resistance in Fargo, North Dakota, and Langdon, North Dakota, will be analyzed in conjunction with data from Aberdeen, Idaho, and Kimberly, Idaho. Mapping populations segregating for SFNB resistance will be surveyed in the Fargo, North Dakota, SFNB nursery. As a step towards resistance gene identification, parent lines and the most resistant/susceptible progeny will be tested in greenhouse experiments and compared by RNA-seq experiments to identify genes up-regulated in response to infection.
The addition of funding to this agreement will allow for a second year of disease resistance screening on two populations. This work is necessary to provide data of sufficient quality for analysis and publication of results. In addition, a greenhouse-based screening method for the Net Form of Net Blotch will be established.
