Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #408808
Research Project: Genomic Mining of Sugar Beet Crop Wild Relative Germplasm Resources for New Sources of Disease Resistance

Location: Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research

Title: Beet crop wild relative germplasm mining uncovers new sources of disease resistance

Author
item Dorn, Kevin

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/27/2024
Publication Date: 2/27/2024
Citation: Dorn, K.M. 2024. Beet crop wild relative germplasm mining uncovers new sources of disease resistance. 79th IIRB Congress 'Innovation: our driver for a profitable and ecologically balanced sugar beet production'. Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Sugar derived from beet (Beta vulgaris) provides over 20% of production globally, and over half in the United States. While gains have been achieved in yield potential and improving agronomic traits with the adoption of genomics-assisted breeding, losses due to multiple pests and pathogens highlight the need for continuing efforts to improve host plant resistance. Sea beet (including Beta vulgaris spp. maritima), a crop wild relative of domesticated beets has served as an essential source of novel disease resistance traits not present in the primary gene pool. Rhizoctonia Root and Crown Rot (RRCR), caused by the ubiquitous soil-borne fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani in sugar beet, regularly causes upwards of $50 million in actualized losses in the US annually. We have successfully mapped the genomic location of a novel quantitative trait loci (QTL) for RRCR resistance derived from a USDA-ARS Fort Collins pre-breeding germplasm called FC709-2 using bi-parental mapping in two beet populations. We endeavor to continue searching for additional forms of RRCR resistance, extending this search into sea beet mini-core collection. To enable the use of a modified bulk segregant analysis and sequencing approach to map resistance loci from this collection, we have developed the first fully-phased chromosome scale assembly of a RRCR resistant sea beet plant. Preliminary evidence suggests the identified sea beet RRCR resistance is from this panel is genetically distinct from the FC709-2 sugar beet derived resistance. Work is ongoing to annotate the sea beet genome using PacBio IsoSeq reads, develop and deploy molecular marker linked to this new resistance, and identify causal candidate gene(s) from the sea beet genome. This new RRCR resistance trait should enable the stacking of robust resistance to a globally important disease facing beet production, plus providing the genomic and germplasm resources necessary to better study the molecular interaction between Rhizoctonia and beet.