What is the genetic basis for adaptation of barley to the Nordic climate?
A collection of about 210 barley cultivars and breeding lines of mostly Norwegian and Scandinavian origin has recently been genotyped with 7000 SNP markers. An association mapping approach will be taken to identify the main genetic loci for heading date and plant height in the Norwegian barley material.
Two traits of likely big importance for resistance to Fusarium will be investigated under controlled conditions in the greenhouse: cleistogamy and flowering in the boot.
Cleistogamy means closed flowering, and in cultivars with this trait, the pollen is shed and the stigma is fertilized without opening of the floret. In this way, the Fusarium pathogen is not able to infect, and the cultivars appear more resistant. We have indications that this trait is common among Norwegian 6-row cultivars.
Another disease escape mechanism seem to be important in some 2-row varieties, and that is to complete the flowering before the emergence of the spike.
In this master thesis, the student will evaluate these important traits in the Norwegian barley material under both controlled conditions in the greenhouse and in the field. The student will also be involved in testing of the same barley material against Fusarium resistance in mist-irrigated field trials.
The student will learn to use advanced statistical methods to analyse large data sets with SNP markers and phenotypic data, and get experience with growing plants in greenhouse and field trials.
Supervisors:
Morten Lillemo ()
Åsmund Bjørnstad ()
Other exciting topics in cereal genetics include:
Functional characterization and transcriptomic analysis of important Fusarium head blight resistance genes in wheat, based on greenhouse and laboratory experiments with near-isogenic lines (NILs), using precise inoculation methods and deep RNA-sequencing of the transcriptome of resistant and susceptible NILs upon infection with Fusarium graminearum. The aim is to identify the mechanisms behind an important FHB resistance QTL on chromosome 2DLc in wheat.
Development of high-throughput SNP marker assays for powdery mildew resistance in wheat, based on analysis of high-density SNP chip data with existing data on powdery mildew resistance in a panel of 288 Norwegian spring wheat lines, and design of KASP marker assays for validation on breeding material from the Graminor wheat breeding program.
Identification of the main genetic factors behind stripe rust resistance in Norwegian wheat. Stripe rust is one of the most yield-reducing wheat diseases globally that has recently re-emerged as an important disease in Norway. In this MSc thesis project, the student will participate in scoring of stripe rust reactions on wheat cultivars and breeding lines in field trials of spring and winter wheat, and make use of high-density SNP marker data to perform genome-wide association mapping to identify the underlying genetic loci for resistance in the Norwegian wheat material.
What are the main genes for pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) resistance in Norwegian wheat? Here, the MSc student will be involved in field and greenhouse evaluation of PHS resistance in Norwegian wheat cultivars and breeding lines, and conduct genome-wide association mapping based on high-density SNP marker data. This will be done in collaboration with the cereal production and quality group (Prof. Anne Kjersti Uhlen) and this topic is described in more details under their section.
For further information on the above topics, please contact Morten Lillemo: