Abstract
We will establish a Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN) to further develop the outputs of HH3723. VeGIN will encompass research on the genetic improvement of leafy vegetables and salads as well as carrot and onion and the maintenance of the genetic resource collections in the W HRI Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) and satellite projects funded by industry and other government funders. The aims of VeGIN are: • To develop the genetic resources and tools to accelerate breeding for “sustainability traits” in field vegetables. • To establish an effective network with industry to promote market delivery of R&D outputs. Within this project we are proposing a programme that will facilitate the genetic improvement of Brassica Field Vegetables and Lettuce. The project aims to address areas of breeding for traits which are key to sustainable farming systems. Network activities will ensure strong links with industry, providing a route for market delivery of R&D outcomes. In 2007/8 vegetable brassicas occupied 26000Kha and had a farm gate value of £225m. Their consumption (particularly in the case of broccoli) has been associated with prevention of cancer and cardio vascular diseases and they make an important contribution to a healthy UK diet. In 2007/8 the UK lettuce crop occupied 6,000ha with a field gate value of £82m.Lettuce growers face a number of challenges; major causes of loss of quality are pests and diseases. An additional quality criterion is the level of nitrate which is fixed by EU Regulation 194/97, UK growers have received derogation but this was withdrawn at the end of 2008. Post harvest discoloration is a major limitation on the shelf life of prepared salads and cause of loss of post harvest quality. Activities within this project fall into three areas:1) Resource building, 2) Trait based research 3) Networking and technology transfer 1. Resource building: We will complete the production of two ‘diversity sets’ as strategic resources for brassica crop improvement. One of these will be derived from crop accessions and the brassica breeding industry will assist in this. The second will represent the genetic diversity within the wild genepool and is derived from accessions of 14 wild brassica species related to B. oleracea. In order to speed up our ability to exploit the genetic variation captured in these diversity sets, we will develop more molecular markers to allow us to a) understand the genetic diversity we have captured and b) to underpin the application of techniques such as association mapping to identify such beneficial alleles. We have initiated a collaborative programme with the brassica vegetable breeding industry to ‘discover’ our markers of choice called single Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and will build upon this in the current project. We will map our new markers using a mapping population and linkage map produced at the University of Wisconsin. We have previously produced a lettuce mapping population and linkage map based upon a cross between the cvs Iceberg x Saladin. We will regenerate the mapping population to F8 through single seed descent and we will complete the anchoring of our map to other published maps to increase its utility. We have produced a set of mutagenised lines (called a TILLING population) in the cv Saladin, this is a strategic resource for reverse genetic approaches to crop improvement of lettuce. In this project we will characterise the population in terms of the number of mutations we have produced in order to inform potential users of its utility. In HH3723 we developed a diversity set of 24 genetic resource accessions, we will expand this to 96 accessions. 2.Trait based research: In brassica we will adopt two complementary approaches to provide the tools and information necessary to breed varieties with improved NUE. We will carry out a genetic analysis to identify molecular markers of potential use in brassica breeding. At the same time we will investigate the allelic variation within the B. oleracea and wild species diversity sets for key metabolic genes involved in nitrogen metabolism. We will screen for resistance to TuYV in the Brassica oleracea core collection and also look for allelic variants of the TuMV resistance TuRB01 gene. We will screen the diversity sets for sources of resistance to diamond back moth and carry out pre- breeding activities to provide material of potential use to breeders. In lettuce we will attempt to identify candidate genes associated with nitrate content. We will assay our lettuce diversity set for resistance to the new resistance breaking form of the aphid Nasonovia ribis-nigri . 3. Networking and Technology transfer: We will develop a VeGIN website which covers the activities in the wider network including this project. Progress in this project will be reported at annual stakeholder meetings, where feed back will be canvassed from stakeholders. These meetings will involve representatives of the breeding and growing industries as well as from Defra and other funders (e.g. HDC). Additional presentations will be made to grower and breeder organisations and results will also be disseminated through grower articles and scientific publications. We will continue to build upon our successful record of jointly funded projects with the breeding industry and seek additional funding for ‘follow up’ projects from industry and government sources.
United Kingdom