Cold Conditioned: Discovery of Novel Alleles for Low-Temperature Tolerance in the Vavilov Barley Collection.

Ahmad H Sallam,Igor G Loskutov,Eric J Stockinger,Tamas Szinyei,Olga N Kovaleva,Jochum Wiersma,Mark E Sorrells,Gongshe Hu,Kevin P Smith,Peter Stephen Baenziger,Brian J Steffenson,Jamie Sherman,Jed Eberly,Carl Duley

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.800284

Abstract

Climate changes leading to higher summer temperatures can adversely affect cool season crops like spring barley. In the Upper Midwest region of the United States, one option for escaping this stress factor is to plant winter or facultative type cultivars in the autumn and then harvest in early summer before the onset of high-temperature stress. However, the major challenge in breeding such cultivars is incorporating sufficient winter hardiness to survive the extremely low temperatures that commonly occur in this production region. To broaden the genetic base for winter hardiness in the University of Minnesota breeding program, 2,214 accessions from the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) were evaluated for winter survival (WS) in St. Paul, Minnesota. From this field trial, 267 (>12%) accessions survived [designated as the VIR-low-temperature tolerant (LTT) panel] and were subsequently evaluated for WS across six northern and central Great Plains states. The VIR-LTT panel was genotyped with the Illumina 9K SNP chip, and then a genome-wide association study was performed on seven WS datasets. Twelve significant associations for WS were identified, including the previously reported frost resistance gene FR-H2 as well as several novel ones. Multi-allelic haplotype analysis revealed the most favorable alleles for WS in the VIR-LTT panel as well as another recently studied panel (CAP-LTT). Seventy-eight accessions from the VIR-LTT panel exhibited a high and consistent level of WS and select ones are being used in winter barley breeding programs in the United States and in a multiparent population.

Highlights

The Upper Midwest was once the largest malting barley (Hordeum vulgare) production region in the United States, supplying the main raw ingredient for many large and small breweries throughout the country
To cope with climatic changes leading to increases in temperature in the northern hemisphere, autumn-sown crops can offer a solution by escaping high temperatures and drought conditions during the summer
The success of such cultivars when sown in autumn is largely dependent on their level of winter hardiness given the extremely low temperatures that often occur in the Upper Midwest region

Summary

Introduction

The Upper Midwest was once the largest malting barley (Hordeum vulgare) production region in the United States, supplying the main raw ingredient for many large and small breweries throughout the country. One option for escaping the adverse effects of elevated summer temperatures and drought conditions is to develop winter or facultative growth habit cultivars that can be sown in autumn (mid-September to early October) and harvested in early summer (late June-early July) Such cultivars can accommodate a double cropping scheme with short season pea (Pisum sativum) and soybean cultivars being planted immediately after the barley harvest. We will use LTT and winter survival (WS) interchangeably as the former is the major component of the latter

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion