Cold conditioned: Discovery of novel alleles for low-temperature tolerance in the vavilov barley collection

Authors: SALLAM, AHMAD - University Of Minnesota; SMITH, KEVIN - University Of Minnesota; Hu, Gongshe; SHERMAN, JAMIE - Montana State University; BAENZIGER, P - University Of Nebraska; WIERSMA, JOCHUM - University Of Minnesota; DULEY, CARL - University Of Wisconsin; STOCKINGER, ERID - The Ohio State University; SORRELS, MARK - Cornell University; SZINYEI, TAMAS - University Of Minnesota; LOSKUTOV, IGOR - Vavilov Institute; KOVALEVA, OLGA - Vavilov Institute; EBERLY, JED - Montana State University; STEFFENSON, BRIAN - University Of Minnesota

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/15/2021
Publication Date: 12/15/2021
Citation: Sallam, A.H., Smith, K.P., Hu, G., Sherman, J., Baenziger, P.S., Wiersma, J., Duley, C., Stockinger, E., Sorrels, M.E., Szinyei, T., Loskutov, I.G., Kovaleva, O.N., Eberly, J., Steffenson, B.J. 2021. Cold conditioned: Discovery of novel alleles for low-temperature tolerance in the vavilov barley collection. Frontiers in Plant Science. 12. Article 800284. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.800284.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.800284

Interpretive Summary: Winter barley has advantages of better use of water sources and avoidance of summer high temperature. Therefore, it provides an option to deal with climate changes. One important factor to strength the winter barley variety development is to identify more winter hardiness germplasm lines. A total of 2214 barley germplasm lines were introduced to University of Minnesota from Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, Russia. After preliminary screening at Minnesota in 2014 winter, 267 of them were selected and further evaluated in 6 locations across the U.S. Seventy-eight of them showed consistent winter survival at the 6 locations. Related DNA markers were also identified for the winter survival favorite loci. These lines and the information on their DNA markers will benefit the winter barley breeding programs.

Technical Abstract: Climate changes leading to higher summer temperatures can adversely affect cool season crops like spring barley. In the Upper Midwest region of the United States, one option for escaping this stress factor is to plant winter or facultative type cultivars in the autumn and then harvest in early summer before the onset of high-temperature stress. However, the major challenge in breeding such cultivars is incorporating sufficient winter hardiness to survive the extremely low temperatures that commonly occur in this production region. To broaden the genetic base for winter hardiness in the University of Minnesota breeding program, 2,214 accessions from the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) were evaluated for winter survival (WS) in St. Paul, Minnesota. From this field trial, 267 (>12%) accessions survived [designated as the VIR-low-temperature tolerant (LTT) panel] and were subsequently evaluated for WS across six northern and central Great Plains states. The VIR-LTT panel was genotyped with the Illumina 9K SNP chip, and then a genomewide association study was performed on seven WS datasets. Twelve significant associations for WS were identified, including the previously reported frost resistance gene FR-H2 as well as several novel ones. Multi-allelic haplotype analysis revealed the most favorable alleles for WS in the VIR-LTT panel as well as another recently studied panel (CAP-LTT). Seventy-eight accessions from the VIR-LTT panel exhibited a high and consistent level of WS and select ones are being used in winter barley breeding programs in the United States and in a multiparent population.