113-4 Prospecting for Gene Function in Complex Natural Environments and Their Derived Agricultural Systems.

See more from this Division: C08 Plant Genetic Resources
See more from this Session: Symposium--Conserving and Using Crop Wild Relatives: Partnering for Success

Monday, November 16, 2015: 3:45 PM
Minneapolis Convention Center, 101 I

R. Varma Penmetsa1, Alex Greenspan1, Peter Chang2, Noellia Carrasquilla-Garcia2, Bullo E Mamo1, Lisa Vance1, Susan Moenga3, Betsy Alford2, Kassaye Negash4, Donna Lindsay5, Zehara Damtew4, Lijalem Korbu Balcha4, Vincent Vadez6, Mahmut Gayberi7, Huseyin Ozcelik8, Fassil Assefa9, Kassahun Tesfaye10, Abdulkadir Aydogan11, Bekir Bukun12, Bunyamin Tar'an5, Masresha Fetene9, Sergey Nuzhdin13, Jens Berger14, Asnake Fikre4, Abdullah kahraman15, Eric von Wettberg16 and Doug Cook2, (1)University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
(2)Plant Pathology, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
(3)Plant Biology Graduate Group, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
(4)Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(5)Crop Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
(6)ICRISAT, Patancheru, India
(7)GAP Agriculture Research Institute, Sanliurfa, Turkey
(8)Black Sea Agricultural Research Institute, Samsun, Turkey
(9)Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(10)Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(11)Department of Food Legume Breeding, Central Research Institute for Field Crops, Ankara, Turkey
(12)Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey
(13)University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
(14)CSIRO, Floreat WA, Australia
(15)Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey
(16)Florida International University, Miami, FL
Abstract:
We are characterizing the potential of chickpea’s wild relatives for crop improvement. We focus on climate resilience, nitrogen fixation and seed nutrient density, with the goal of more sustainable and stable production systems. We combine upstream ecology and genomics to assemble and characterize wild germplasm; population development to remove barriers to use of wild alleles; phenotyping and modeling of trait-gene associations to enhance the precision and rate with which wild alleles are applied. We have completed ecological characterization and genetic resource collection for ~2,000 wild accessions, used genotyping by sequencing to deduce population genetic parameters, initiated whole genome re-sequencing of 1,100 accessions, collected co-occurring bacterial symbionts, surveyed seed and flowering phenotypes, and initiated development of nested association mapping and backcross introgression panels for trait dissection and breeding. In parallel to the analysis of plant populations we have initiated genomics and community ecology of legume-associate microbes from both wild species at their center of origin and their domesticated counterparts globally. We are particularly interested in understanding both positive and negative consequences of domestication on the function of these complex, multi-species systems. For example, sequencing the genome of ~800 Mesorhizobium individuals reveals a history of horizontal gene transfer of symbiotic genes from the natural symbiont of Cicer spp to atypical genomic backgrounds outside the center of origin, presumably to balance adaptation to agricultural situations (e.g., soil, competing microbes) with the need for symbiotic competency. We have also initiated culture-independent metagenomic studies of rhizosphere and phylosphere microbial communities throughout the plant species’ center of origin, to investigate the biogeography of plant-associate microbes. We are testing the hypothesis of plant-microbiome coevolution in a range-wide study system, as well as characterizing the population genetics of key crop pathogens in wild systems.

See more from this Division: C08 Plant Genetic Resources
See more from this Session: Symposium--Conserving and Using Crop Wild Relatives: Partnering for Success

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