The seed project: Unlocking useful genetic variation for wheat improvement
Material type:
TextPublication details: 2014Description: 1 pageSummary: The Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative is part of the Mexico-funded Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture program. Its objective is to characterize and facilitate the use of new wheat and maize genetic diversity in breeding programs. By 2050, the human population will have risen to 9 billion, and climate change may lead to food shortages. Genetic diversity is essential to continuously adapt wheat varieties to changing climatic conditions. The CIMMYT Gene bank conserves 150,000 accessions of wheat and related species. The extent to which this diversity is fully harnessed in wheat improvement is uncertain, partly due to the lack of information about the accessions' genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. The SeeD initiative aims to comprehensively characterize this diversity to build a 'molecular and phenotypic atlas' that describes the germplasm through high-density genome profiles consisting of several 10,000 loci. Genotyping-by-Sequencing is being used to circumvent ascertainment bias and reduce costs per DNA sample analyzed. The genome profiles will be used to establish genetic relationships among accessions and to establish subgroups of accessions that capture maximum allelic and genotypic diversity, to be used for future studies. One individual per accession is genotyped, and seeds of genotyped plants are collected for future studies. Twenty-five thousand accessions, (Iranian and Mexican landraces), have been genotyped. In parallel, sixteen thousand accessions have been evaluated for key agricultural traits, such as drought and heat, morphological traits and agronomic performance. Likewise, accessions are being grouped according to their phenology (early, intermediate, and late lines), an important input for future field trials. Knowledge of the genetic diversity among lines that tolerate drought and heat will allow the selection of parental accessions for trait introgression into more elite genetic backgrounds. An introgression program was initiated by crossing a set of primary synthetic wheats, and landraces identified by Focus Identification of Germplasm Strategy sets for drought and heat, with a group of advanced high-yielding lines from CIMMYT's bread wheat breeding program. Overall, SeeD will promote the expansion of the "genetic repertoire" of favorable diversity available to wheat breeding programs, globally, so that yield potential and tolerance to stresses can continue to improve in the future.
| Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conference proceedings | CIMMYT Knowledge Center: John Woolston Library | CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection | CIS-7542 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available |
Browsing CIMMYT Knowledge Center: John Woolston Library shelves, Collection: CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
Abstract only
The Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative is part of the Mexico-funded Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture program. Its objective is to characterize and facilitate the use of new wheat and maize genetic diversity in breeding programs. By 2050, the human population will have risen to 9 billion, and climate change may lead to food shortages. Genetic diversity is essential to continuously adapt wheat varieties to changing climatic conditions. The CIMMYT Gene bank conserves 150,000 accessions of wheat and related species. The extent to which this diversity is fully harnessed in wheat improvement is uncertain, partly due to the lack of information about the accessions' genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. The SeeD initiative aims to comprehensively characterize this diversity to build a 'molecular and phenotypic atlas' that describes the germplasm through high-density genome profiles consisting of several 10,000 loci. Genotyping-by-Sequencing is being used to circumvent ascertainment bias and reduce costs per DNA sample analyzed. The genome profiles will be used to establish genetic relationships among accessions and to establish subgroups of accessions that capture maximum allelic and genotypic diversity, to be used for future studies. One individual per accession is genotyped, and seeds of genotyped plants are collected for future studies. Twenty-five thousand accessions, (Iranian and Mexican landraces), have been genotyped. In parallel, sixteen thousand accessions have been evaluated for key agricultural traits, such as drought and heat, morphological traits and agronomic performance. Likewise, accessions are being grouped according to their phenology (early, intermediate, and late lines), an important input for future field trials. Knowledge of the genetic diversity among lines that tolerate drought and heat will allow the selection of parental accessions for trait introgression into more elite genetic backgrounds. An introgression program was initiated by crossing a set of primary synthetic wheats, and landraces identified by Focus Identification of Germplasm Strategy sets for drought and heat, with a group of advanced high-yielding lines from CIMMYT's bread wheat breeding program. Overall, SeeD will promote the expansion of the "genetic repertoire" of favorable diversity available to wheat breeding programs, globally, so that yield potential and tolerance to stresses can continue to improve in the future.
Genetic Resources Program|Global Wheat Program
English
Lucia Segura
INT3098|INT2731|INT3233|INT1511|INT3234|INT1422|INT1617|INT3049
CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection