2008 Reports

Breeding Fusarium Head Blight-Resistant Winter Wheat

Amir Ibrahim

William Berzonsky

Collaborators:

Jeff Stein and Yang Yen

 In any year, the potential exists for Fusarium head blight (FHB), or scab, to severely limit winter wheat production in South Dakota.  The SDSU Winter Wheat Breeding Program continues to combine traditional breeding techniques with marker-assisted selection technology to develop varieties with a high level of resistance to FHB.  The SDSU program collaborates with the University of Nebraska and other regional breeding programs to develop resistant germplasm, exchange germplasm, and evaluate germplasm in artificially inoculated nurseries.  It also collaborates with the USDA-ARS Genotyping Lab in Manhattan, KS to validate the existence of genes for resistance to FHB in advanced South Dakota breeding lines and varieties.  In 2008, this breeding activity and associated regional collaboration led to the release of ‘Lyman’ winter wheat, which is among the most resistant of all available hard red winter wheat varieties.  SDWC funding supports the breeding program, enabling it to target the development of varieties with even higher levels of resistance to FHB and enabling growers to employ genetic resistance as a component of an integrated effort to reduce costly losses due to scab.

Graduate Research Assistantship

Winter Wheat Program

William Berzonsky

Sue Blodgett

Funding is provided for a Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA).    Mr. Brad Carsrud began his M.S. program with Dr. Berzonsky in January 2009.

Objectives of the SDSU-Plant Science Winter Wheat Program include: 

Varietal development and release

Release of varieties with high grain yield and yield stability

Release of  superior milling and baking quality varieties

Release of varieties with, desirable agronomic characteristics (optimum maturity and plant height, long coleoptile, standability), disease and insect resistance (various fungal and viral pathogens and cereal aphids), and environmental stress tolerance (freezing and drought).

Impacts:  Release of winter wheat varieties that are adapted to South Dakota growing conditions and offer competitive yield and quality program South Dakota producers with a competitive advantage. Varieties released from the program are expected to provide growers with higher yields and superior resistance to emerging races of pathogens and pests.

Hard White Winter Wheat Breeding (Special Project)

William Berzonsky

Steve Kalsbeck

Sue Blodgett

The SDSU Winter Wheat Breeding Program is actively involved in developing improved hard white winter wheat varieties for SD growers and the region.  The release of hard white winter wheat varieties will help growers remain competitive for emerging domestic and international end-use markets.  In addition to bread quality testing, the SDSU program is doing extensive testing of white wheat breeding lines for seed color, preharvest sprouting, and noodle color and quality.  The percentage of white wheat breeding lines in the program ranges from 13% to 33%.  A new seed color sorter was acquired from the USDA-ARS, and it is being routinely used to help purify seed of breeding lines.  New quality tests and a new method for evaluating preharvest sprouting are being developed to assure that future white wheat releases meet industry requirements.  White wheat breeding lines are routinely tested in Wheat Quality Council Trials to assess their quality for domestic markets.  Funding provided by the SDWC supports the development of varieties for both domestic and international markets and it helps SD growers remain competitive with Australian and Canadian growers for emerging white wheat markets.

Integrated Management Of Wheat Diseases

Jeff Stein

Collaborators:

Karl Glover

Bill Berzonsky

Larry Osborne

Dennis Todey

Fungal  plant  pathogens  regularly  cause  serious losses to the wheat crop in South Dakota.  For example, an estimated $34 million was lost during a minor Fusarium head blight (FHB or scab) epidemic in 2005. Other significant diseases are leaf rust, the leaf blight complex (e.g. tan spot), and the root rot complex (e.g. common root rot). These all occur to some level each year and are exacerbated by the temporal and spatial overlap of the winter and spring wheat crops in the state since there is almost always a susceptible wheat field present.

Through funding from the South Dakota Wheat Commission and other sources, the Small Grains Pathology Program, in collaboration with others at SDSU conducted research in 2008 on the management of these important diseases.

Improvement of Integrated Management Strategies for Wheat Diseases in South Dakota

Lawrence Osborne
Kay Ruden

Collaborators:

Karl Glover

Bill Berzonsky

Jeff Stein

Marie Langham

Michael Moechnig

Ron Gelderman

The major economic diseases of wheat in SD include Fusarium head blight, cereal rusts, leaf spot complex (primarily tan spot and Septoria diseases), root rot complex, as well as wheat streak mosaic and other virus diseases. Through funding from the SDWC and grants from the federal government, the Extension Plant Pathology project at SDSU conducts ongoing research to discover, test, and implement efficient integrated management strategies for several of these important diseases. Our primary emphasis over the last decade has been on chemical and cultural management.

Over the past year, our program has successfully evaluated management programs for: seedling disease control; early-season wheat leaf disease suppression; rust and tan spot fungicide control; Fusarium head blight (FHB) fungicide efficacy; and FHB integrated control.  Our program has worked to assess the prevalence of both common (wheat streak mosaic, barley yellow dwarf) and rare (high plains disease, cereal yellow dwarf) viral diseases of wheat.  We also continued to assess the level of genetic resistance in common wheat varieties to diseases such as leaf rust and FHB through coordination with the Wheat Breeding projects at SDSU.

Molecular Characterization of

Spring and Winter Wheat Germplasm

José Gonzalez

Xingyou Gu

Protein quality is probably the most important single factor shaping grain quality in wheat. Protein quality is a complex trait determined by the total grain protein concentration and the type of proteins present in the grain. Both aspects of protein quality have important consequences for producers, grain handlers, millers and bakers. Breeding lines in both Wheat Breeding programs at SDSU are regularly selected for grain protein concentration. However, screening for protein composition is most cumbersome. There are two major groups of proteins in the wheat grain, glutenins and gliadins; these are the major components of gluten.  Based on their molecular weight there are two types of glutenins and four types of gliadins. The different combinations of both classes of proteins can be differentiated using a combination of molecular biology techniques. Different combinations of glutenins and gliadins have been associated with quality characteristics in the end product. For wheat breeders it would be of great aid to know the protein composition when designing new crosses and during selection in early and advanced yield trials.

Our data shows that both spring and winter wheat breeding programs have a relatively low genetic variation for glutenin composition and most of the lines used as parental lines do not have optimum glutenin composition. This data will allow both breeders to design their crossing block in order to improve glutenin composition and therefore grain quality in future varieties.

Supplement: Table: Allele Composition

Supplement: Family-based mapping of quantitative trait loci in plant breeding populations with resistance to Fusarium head blight in wheat as an illustration

Supplement: Table: Crossing Schemes

Mapping of QTLs for Resistance to

Pre‐Harvest Sprouting in a Selected Wheat

Xingyou Gu

Karl Glover

Collaborators:

Steven Xu 

Shiaoman Chao

Objectives:   

1. Construct a framework genetic map based on the DH1 population using wheat  microsatellite markers screened in FY08; 

2. Locate QTLs for seed dormancy on the genetic map and estimate their genetic  effects;

3. Develop hybrids between dormant  lines and the white seed coat‐colored  varieties of spring wheat to initiate the experiment of dormancy genes introgression  in the following years.  

Impacts: 

à Synthetic hexaploid wheat‐derived lines that have been genetically characterized for stronger seed dormancy in the past three years are selected to enhance our breeding germplasm. Based on our observation in the field experiments, some of these lines also have desirable yield component and other agronomic traits. These selected lines most likely contain some unexploded genes from the wheat wild relative Ae. Tauschii that are absent in common wheat.  

à The information about the putative QTLs and their linked molecular markers  identified in the FY09 experiments not only facilitates our experiment in the next years but also contribute new knowledge to research area of wheat PHS resistance. We are preparing a manuscript to release the information to public.

à Invited to give a oral and poster presentations in the 4th International plant dormancy symposium that will be held in Fargo, ND, in June 2009. 

à The hybrids developed in FY09 will be used to pyramid the PHS resistance a by marker‐assisted selection technique.

Reduced Tillage Crop Rotation Study in Western South Dakota

Thandiwe Nleya

John Rickertsen

Bruce Swan

The typical rotation in southwestern South Dakota when this study started in 1994 was winter wheat-fallow. This study was initiated to determine if no-till rotations with continuous cropping and more crop diversity  could be successful in the region.  Currently the study has nine rotations ranging from two to six years with a conventional winter wheat-fallow rotation as a comparison.  Reduced and no-till production practices are used to grow the crops except for the winter wheat in the conventional fallow treatment. The results have shown that the inclusion of broadleaf crops sunflower, safflower and peas; along with warm season grass crops like corn and millet, helps to break weed and disease cycles and improves winter wheat yields. However, drought in the last six years, has adversely affected yield of most crops making it difficult to achieve consistent profitability. We continue to make cropping changes in an attempt to improve crop performance under dry conditions. For example, we have lowered plant populations for corn and sunflowers. The last few dry years have shown us that our plant populations were probably unrealistically high.  We have introduced flexible cropping options to save moisture including introducing annual forage and green manure crops in some rotations.

The study is fully published in the West River Annual Progress Report and is available on the internet at http://wrac.sdstate.edu/pubs/plant/plant.html  Producers can review this publication and determine all the management practices and costs of production that goes into each rotation.

Evaluation of Wheat for Resistance and Response to Viral Diseases in South Dakota

Marie Langham

Collaborators:

William Berzonsky

Larry Osborne

Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) is the major viral disease infecting wheat in South Dakota.  The WSMV Evaluation Nursery compares the performance of healthy and WSMV infected wheat plants for each line.  Disease severity, stunting, delays in heading date, losses in test weight, and yield losses are observed in the nursery.   Performance information is utilized to assess the advancement of breeding lines and the inclusion of other genetic materials in the breeding program.  It is also necessary to exclude lines most severely affected by WSMV.  Collaborative efforts of the plant virology and winter wheat breeding projects have resulted in varieties and breeding lines with improved tolerance.  However, the development of wheat cultivars requires annual evaluation for WSMV.  Without this process, susceptible materials will not be eliminated from the breeding program, and previous advances in resistance and tolerance will be lost. 

The Great Plains Epidemiology is a multistate effort to better identify the location and range of plant viruses in the Great Plains, and it is a cooperative effort with Extension acting as the leader.  The Plant Virology project is supporting this program with diagnostic and evaluation assistance.

Spring Wheat Breeding

Karl Glover

Late Stage Cultivar Development:  Seed of three advanced experimental lines (SD3948, SD3997, and SD4011) is currently being increased and each will be considered for release as a cultivar.

SD3948 is an F₄ line derivation selected from within the SD3367/FN1500-118 population. Its first year of testing in the AYT was 2006. Information supporting SD3948 has been presented to the variety review and release committee. Permission was granted to continue with seed increase with the intent to release as a cultivar in 2010.

SD3997 is an F₄ line derivation from within the cross FN1700-155/FN1500-074//SD3348. Its first year of testing in the AYT was 2006. Permission was granted to begin seed increase activities with the intent to release as a cultivar as soon as 2011.

SD4011 is an F₄ line derivation from the cross SD3367/SD3618. Its first year of testing in the AYT was 2007. Information supporting SD4011 has been presented to the variety review and release committee. Permission was granted to begin seed increase activities with the intent to release as a cultivar as soon as 2011.

Value enhancement of South Dakota Wheat

Padu Krishnan

Karl Glover

William Berzonsky

Howard Woodard

José Gonzalez

Robert Fanning

Accomplishments in the area of wheat quality assessment and evaluation of specific quality traits have been considerable. We have also significantly increased the research and instrumental capacity in the area of wheat technology and chemistry with the acquisition of numerous pieces of equipment include:

à Mixolab provides information on dough mixing properties.  

à Farinograph provides quality assurance information

à Cross-Flow Blender provides uniform blends of flour for formulating new products.

à Quadrumat Senior Mills higher capacity quantities of flour quantities

à Fermentation cabinets, sheeting equipment, baking oven and dough mixers for baking

à Texture Analyzer  dough extensibility, cooked noodle strength, dough bubble blowing in gluten strength and in measuring kernel grain hardness. 

à Glutamatix provides gluten quality information of ground wheat or flour. 

Along with capacity building, we have also conducted basic and applied research to provide answers and solutions to key research questions such as the variability of selenium (Se) in SD wheat, processing of high Se fractions, use of white wheat in selected foods and the use of modified starches as dietary fiber adjuncts in pizza crust. Our research personnel have attended training courses in wheat quality and Asian Noodles. We are developing new methods for flour quality evaluation using a battery of instruments.  These methods are intended to reduce the samples sizes needed as well as to provide meaningful information to the breeders for informed decision-making. A survey of high-Se wheat growing areas continues to be a focus. The research is expected to translate compositional information into enhanced value for wheat and the development of products and processes that are marketable to local and US interests.  

Weed Management Publications for Small Grains in South Dakota

Michael Moechnig

Darrell Deneke

David Vos

Jill Alms

Funding of this project enabled the publication of a small grains herbicide fact sheet and a fact sheet regarding pre-harvest herbicide applications.  In addition, field research was conducted to support information provided in these fact sheets.  Total funding provided was $6,700.

Wheat Quality as Influenced by Cultural and Climatic Interactions

David Clay

Cheryl Reese

Collaborators:  

Karl Glover

Robert Hall

Gregg Carlson

Sharon Clay

In dryland wheat production, complex interactions between cultural practices, soil, climate, and genomics interact to influence wheat quality and yield.  The objective of this study was to investigate these interactions.  Small plot and whole field research was conducted in this study.  Producer samples from over 250 fields in 2007 and 2008 were collected and analyzed for selected wheat quality attributes.  In small plot studies: 1) the impact of crop varieties and locations on wheat quality and yield variability were assessed; and 2) approaches for using remote sensing as an in-season N recommendation tool that considers quality premiums and discounts were investigated.  Preliminary analysis suggests that: 1) climatic conditions, management, cultural practices, and genomics interact to influence yields and quality, 2) in-season N recommendations can reduce N fertilizer requirements, improve protein content, and reduce protein discounts; and 3) remote sensing can be used to assess potential yield losses due to N.  Information developed by this project is needed to develop guidelines for developing corrective solutions and expectations of wheat quality under different climatic conditions and assist producers understand how their management influences wheat selling prices.

Winter Wheat Breeding and  Genetics

William Berzonsky

Steve Kalsbeck

Sue Blodgett

The SDSU Winter Wheat Breeding Program uses modern and traditional breeding techniques to develop improved varieties for South Dakota growers and the region.  Emphasis is on developing varieties which meet the needs of growers, including high grain yield, superior end-use quality, resistance to pathogens and pests, and tolerance to freezing and drought.  Varieties are developed utilizing a well-designed breeding scheme which starts with crossing desirable parents and includes extensive testing for desirable traits over years and in various diverse environments.  In 2008, ‘Lyman’ a new hard red winter wheat variety was released.  ‘Lyman’ has excellent resistance to leaf rust and superior resistance to Fusarium head blight.  It has a tendency to lodge under high moisture conditions, similar to ‘Arapahoe’, but ‘Lyman’ has excellent milling and acceptable baking quality attributes.  It is targeted as a replacement for both Arapahoe and Harding, and it is complementary to Millennium and Overland in its genetic performance.  Lyman is similar to Arapahoe in maturity (medium), height (medium) and in winter hardiness.  Funding provided by the SDWC enables the SDSU Winter Wheat Breeding Program to expand its research capabilities to meet the changing needs of growers as regional winter wheat acres continue to increase.

Production of Selenium Enriched Wheat in South Dakota

Howard Woodard

Collaborators:

Padu Krishnan

Fathi Haleweish

Selenium is essential to human health and may provide anti-carcinogenic effects if provided in the human diet at certain levels.  Many regions of the world are deficient in soil Selenium, but soils in certain regions of South Dakota have adequate to excess levels of Selenium.  Wheat grown in these high Selenium soils may increase grain Selenium concentration.  Wheat growers in South Dakota would be at a distinct advantage when international millers seek enriched selenium wheat grain sources.  Previous research in the greenhouse showed that Se uptake in wheat plants could be enhanced by higher soil phosphorous availability, but suppressed as sulfur levels increased.  A two year field study in Lyman and Tripp counties examined how grain Selenium levels were influenced by various applied rates of phosphorus fertilizer and sulfur fertilizer. The sites chosen have medium-high available soil Selenium levels. The phosphorus was banded with the seed or broadcasted on the soil surface. Grain yield increased as phosphorus rates increased to about the twice the recommended rate in the banded treatment.  However, grain Selenium content decreased as both applied Phosphorus and Sulfur application rates increased from the control (0 lbs./a) rate to the highest rates applied.  These field studies show that both phosphorus and sulfur fertilizers suppress Selenium uptake.

Molecular Breeding of Spring and Winter Wheat Germplasm for end use quality and disease resistance

José Gonzalez

Karl Glover

Jeff Stein

Padmanban Krishnan

One of the main limitations in the application of molecular breeding techniques into breeding programs is the time normally required to identify, map, and develop appropriate DNA markers useful in plant breeding programs.

We have developed the family-based approach using a well-validated technique, quantitative trait locus (QTL) in wheat (Fhb1) to identify a major genetic loci for resistance to Fusarium head blight (scab).  The loci for scab resistance has been identified in one promising wheat line SD3934 and we have completed the population development for resistance to Fusarium.  Genotyping is in progress.

Our results have been published in Theoretical and Applied Genetics (Supplemental material 2). A second manuscript is also being prepared describing the different parameters influencing the statistical power of this approach in plants. We have been able to secure additional funding, from the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative to study the application of this approach genetic study of novel sources of resistance to FHB. This funding will allow us studying additional sources of resistance with larger population size, which will result in improved statistical power and mapping resolution.