WHEAT BREEDING METHODS AND STRATEGIES Gilles Charmet (INRA) & Mark Sorrells (Cornell) An overview of Research Areas Related to Breeding Methods Wheat IniKaKve 2nd Research CommiXee meeKng, Yokohama, September 14-‐15, 2013 A plant breeding method is deﬁned as a process for producing new plant genotypes by hybridizaKon and/or inbreeding. •  Following the ﬁrst draO and review, several of us met aOer the Wheat Genomic SelecKon Workshop in Clermont-‐Ferrand to discuss breeding methods. •  Present were Gilles CHARMET, Peter Langridge, Hélène Lucas, Marco Bink, Jose Crossa, David BonneX, and Mark Sorrells. Goals •  Capacity building •  Support for improved breeding methods research •  InternaKonal exchange of informaKon and germplasm. Deliverables •  New enhanced breeding methods that uKlize predicKve science to improve the eﬃciency of variety development. •  Increased numbers of plant breeders trained in state-‐of-‐the-‐art plant breeding methods. •  Increased internaKonal exchange of tools, methods and germplasm. Genomic Selec+on Tool Development needed: •  Recurrent selecKon •  New algorithms and predicKve models •  Improved marker placorms and reference consensus sequence map •  Reference genotypes for marker referencing •  Link to standard phenotypes and trait ontologies •  Methods for distribuKon and sharing of germplasm and data on related phenotypes and genotypes •  Methods for uKlizing informaKon in genome wide associaKon studies New Knowledge needed: •  Data processing pipeline needed that will link to bioinformaKcs Wheat InformaKon System EWG and the Integrated Breeding Placorm or other databases •  OpKmizing Training populaKon design (especially composiKon and size) •  •  New methods for including GxE and highly dimensional environmental covariates and marker matrices in predicKve models Methods for maintaining and/or expanding geneKc diversity in selecKon populaKons Hybrid Wheat Tool Development needed Recurrent selecKon methods Apomixis EﬀecKve male sterility systems Eﬃcient hybrid seed producKon systems HeteroKc gene pools New Knowledge needed Understanding of heterosis in wheat EﬀecKve methods of collaboraKon Methods for combining the dominance characterisKcs for various traits in hybrids •  Methods for predicKng hybrid performance •  Methods for gene pool development •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  MutaKon Breeding •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  Tool Development needed TILLING populaKons and sequencing mutated lines Site-‐directed mutagenesis methods Transgenic methods for validaKon New Knowledge needed Assessing and uKlizing epigeneKc variaKon CommunicaKon and informaKon sharing U+liza+on of Cul+vated and Wild Gene+c Diversity •  Tool Development needed •  Improved methods of introgression of exoKc germplasm •  Methods for reducing the size of introgressed chromosome segments •  New Knowledge needed •  Methods for prioriKzing uKlizaKon accessions of exoKc germplasm •  ManipulaKon of meiosis and recombinaKon •  Allele mining •  Develop methods for communicaKon and sharing of informaKon and germplasm Develop a Transna+onal training program in state-‐of-‐the-‐art breeding methods for students and post-‐docs 1.  Survey exisKng training programs and provide a descripKon of each. 2.  Complement exisKng student training programs with training (internships) in breeding programs in diﬀerent public and private insKtuKons. 3.  Develop hands-‐on workshops for new breeding methods that would include analyzing their own datasets. 4.  Establish a Wheat IniKaKve Ph.D. Fellowship program named for the sponsor that would link private and public insKtuKons through projects that require experience in mulKple countries and address one or more of the priority research areas. Comments from Last Review •  Considering the broad scope of the EWG, they encourage you to consider seing up EWG subgroups on the diﬀerent research areas. •  Germplasm sharing as a deliverable is likely not aXainable. Furthermore in last secKon “other comments”: “speciﬁcally excluded are.... Intellectual property issues....” If germplasm sharing is retained, a key ﬁrst milestone should be an agreed upon template for germplasm sharing. •  With respect to hybrid breeding the development of heteroKc pools should be included. (Added) •  More detailed informaKon on the GMOs should be given.