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  • Wheat phenotyping workshop

    The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) extends a cordial invitation to participate in the training workshop "Wheat phenotyping for the identification of germplasm with high yield potential and tolerance to drought and heat". This will be held in CIMMYT HQ, Texcoco, State of Mexico, on September 28th, 2018 (from 9:00 – 14:00 hrs) as part of the II Plant Breeding Symposium México 2018 (https://trasmejoragen.wixsite.com/inicio) The objective of this workshop is to train participants in the phenotypic characterization of wheat germplasm. Research themes include: climate change; priority characteristics for wheat for Mexico; phenotyping of genetically diverse materials and in the ...

  • II Plant Breeding Symposium Mexico 2018

    MasAgro Biodiversity announces the II Plant Breeding Symposium Mexico 2018 which will be held on September 6 and 7, 2018 at the CIMMYT HQ, Texcoco. Mexico. This event belongs to the series of DuPont Plant Sciences Symposia. For more information please visit the website:https://trasmejoragen.wixsite.com/inicio

  • New video: Crop biodiversity for healthy, nutritious livelihoods

    Erratic weather, poor soil health, and resource shortages keep millions of maize and wheat farmers in developing countries from growing enough to feed their households and communities or to harvest a surplus to sell.

  • 3rd KDSmart app workshop

    The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) extends a cordial invitation to participate in the training workshop on the use of the KDSmart app. This will be held in Texcoco, State of Mexico, on December 20, 2017 (from 9:00 - 17:00 hrs).

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PRODUCTS CATALOGUE

PRODUCTS CATALOGUE

MasAgro Biodiversity, a component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program, focuses on the utilization and conservation of valuable genetic resources with genetic diversity protected in germplasm banks. This program has the purpose of accelerating the development of Varieties of maize and wheat that can meet the nutrition and nutritional demands of a growing population, facing the challenges of climate change.

By characterizing the genetic configuration of CIMMYT germplasm bank collections, the evaluation of priority characteristics – such as drought tolerance, high temperatures and some diseases – and the development of bioinformatics tools that streamline its analysis, MasAgro Biodiversity has Generated a “platform for the utilization of genetic resources” of maize and wheat.

This platform puts several products at the disposal of the scientific community. MasAgro Biodiversity also offers some services in order to promote equity in access and benefits of the use of maize and wheat diversity.

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  • Mobilizing Gene Bank Biodiversity in the Fight Against Climate Change

Mobilizing Gene Bank Biodiversity in the Fight Against Climate Change

Wheat in the field in KazakhstanIn a world where the population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, grain production must increase to meet rising demand. This is especially true for bread wheat, which provides one-fifth of the total calories consumed by the world’s population. However, climate change threatens to derail global food security, as instances of extreme weather events and high temperatures reduce agricultural productivity and are increasing faster than agriculture can naturally adapt, leaving our future ability to feed the global population uncertain. How can we ensure crop production and food security for generations to come?

In order to continue feeding the planet, it is imperative that we identify crop varieties that display adaptive and quality traits such as drought and heat stress tolerance that will allow them to survive and flourish despite environmental stresses. For this reason, a recent study by Sehgal et al, “Exploring and mobilizing the gene bank biodiversity for wheat improvement,” was conducted to characterize wheat seed collections in the CIMMYT germplasm bank to identify useful variations for use in wheat breeding.

The study analyzed the genetic diversity of 1,423 bread wheat seed collections, which represented major wheat production environments from around the world, particularly regions that experience significant heat and drought. The tested collections included synthetic wheat varieties, which are novel bread wheat varieties created by making crosses between the progenitors of modern bread wheat, durum wheat and wild grassy ancestors; landraces, which are local varieties developed through centuries of farmer selection; and elite lines that have been selectively bred and adapted. The samples were analyzed through genotyping-by-sequencing, a rapid and cost-effective approach that allows for an in-depth, reliable estimate of genetic diversity.

Ancestors of modern wheats, right, in comparison with an ear of modern cultivated wheat, left.

Ancestors of modern wheat, right, in comparison with an ear of modern cultivated wheat, left.

The results of the study suggested that many of the tested landraces and synthetics have untapped, useful genetic variation that could be used to improve modern wheat varieties. When combined with elite wheat germplasm, this genetic variation will increase stress adaptation and quality traits as well as heat and drought tolerance, thus leading to new wheat varieties that can better survive under climate change. The study also found new genetic variation for vernalization, in which flowering is induced by exposure to cold, and for glutenin, a major wheat protein responsible for dough strength and elasticity. Based on the information generated by the study, over 200 of the diverse seed collections tested have been selected for use in breeding and to discover and use the new specific forms of genes for drought and heat stress tolerance they contain. This new genetic diversity will help bread wheat breeding programs around the world to create new varieties to feed the world’s growing population in a changing environment.

This research is part of CIMMYT’s ongoing Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) project, which is funded by the Mexican Ministry of agriculture and rural development (SADER) through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, as well as the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). SeeD works to unlock the genetic potential of maize and wheat genetic resources by providing breeders with a toolkit that enables their more targeted use in the development of better varieties that address future challenges, including those from climate change and a growing population.

 

To read the full study, please click here:

Citation:

Sehgal D, Vikram P, Sansaloni CP, Ortiz C, Pierre CS, Payne T, et al. (2015) Exploring and Mobilizing the Gene Bank Biodiversity for Wheat Improvement. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0132112. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132112

 

Related Publications:

Exploiting genetic diversity from landraces in wheat breeding for adaptation to climate change (2015) Lopes, M.S., El-Basyoni, I., Baenziger, P.S., Sukhwinder-Singh, Royo, C., Ozbek, K., Aktas, H., Ozer, E., Ozdemir, F., Manickavelu, A., Ban, T., Vikram, P.

Coping with climate change: the roles of genetic resources for food and agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

 

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RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

Genetic resources

Genetic resources

Capacity

Capacity

Data

Data

Pre-breeding Germplasm

Pre-breeding Germplasm

Knowledge

Knowledge

Software

Software

PHILOSOPHY OF OUR APPROACH

PHILOSOPHY OF OUR APPROACH

So many accessions, so few data!

Many genebanks resemble libraries that lack sufficiently informative catalogs. The advent of next-generation DNA-sequencing platforms has made it possible to characterize the genetic diversity conserved in entire genebanks.

Information management

Generating new data by itself is insufficient if it cannot be effectively disseminated, queried, summarized, visualized, and analyzed. Data generation, therefore, has to go hand-in-hand with providing intuitive software and analysis tools to deal with the rapidly expanding datasets describing maize and wheat genetic resources.

Pre-breeding

A ‘reformatting’ of the diversity in genebanks into a more breeder-ready format could lower the barriers to mobilize novel genetic variation into breeding programs, which in good part are due to the dependency of gene effects on genetic backgrounds.

Traits with complex genetic architecture

Some of the most important challenges to agriculture need to be addressed by manipulating genetically complex characters controlled by small-effect alleles (yield potential, heat and drought tolerance, etc.).

Collecting germplasm.

The availability of sufficient numbers of genebank accessions does not appear to be a factor limiting the use of novel genetic variation in breeding programs, and a new initiative will secure the global network of genebanks of humanity’s major food crops for future generations.