Intelligent Design: Plant Domestication for the 21st Century

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Intelligent Design Plant Domestication for the
21st Century

• Lee DeHaan
• The Land Institute

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THE LAND INSTITUTE
SALINA, KANSAS
www.landinstitute.org
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Possible Seminars
Outline

• Why perennial grains are needed
• Progress with perennial grain development
• Status of intermediate wheatgrass domestication
• Progress in perennial wheat breeding
• Why perennial grains are possible
• Potential roles for molecular markers in
  perennial grain breeding.

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Intelligent Design Plant Domestication for the
21st Century
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Vegetables and fruits Less than 10 of cropped
acreage
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Global Cropland Distribution
sugar spices
fruits
roots tubers
vegetables
cereals, legumes, oilseeds
nuts tree oils
(FAO, 2004)
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I-39
I-80
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A Different Planet

• Roughly 27 of Earths landscapes are cultivated
• Humans appropriate about 25 of Earths
  productivity

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The concentrations that caused deformities were
incredibly low for Esfenvalerate and
Atrazine--low enough for humans to drink, based
on Environmental Protection Agency standards.
-Joseph Kiesecker, Penn State
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Perennial Intermediate wheatgrass
Annual Wheat
November, 2002
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Intermediate wheatgrass
Wheat
Photo by Jim Richardson
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July 13 26
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April 6 April 19
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Nitrate-N in water from tile drains (Randall et
al., 1997)
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Intermediate wheatgrass
Wheat
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What laptops would look like if engineers only
worked on CPU speed
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What wheat looks like when we focus on yield
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Breeding perennial grain crops
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Thinopyrum intermedium
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intermediate wheatgrass
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Correlations in First Round of Selection from
1000 Genotypes
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1997 Halfsib Evaluation, Comparison of families
from selected versus all plants
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lt 5 mg/seed
gt 12 mg/seed
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Perennial wheat breeding
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Australia salinization
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Washington state
S. Jones, 2001
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Pullman, WA 2002
S. Jones, WSU
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Amarillo, TX 16 Aug. 2007
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Plant with 14 Wheat Chromosomes and 43 IWG
Chromosomes Pedigree Carthlicum wheat (2n28) /
Th. intermedium (2n42)//Th. intermedium (2n42)
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B1100
B1107(4)
B927-2-7
B307
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B913(3)-1-32
B913(3)-2-9
B913(3)-6-27
B930(4)-37
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B875-12-1-14
B875-12-1-34 91 seeds, 23 mg per seed
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Perennial sunflower breeding
perennials, 2n102
perennials, 2n34
crop sunflower, 2n34
hybrid gene pool, 2n68
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Helianthus maximiliani
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Perennial Rice

• Soil erosion in uplands of southeast Asia has
  been a serious problem that led to the project of
  developing perennial upland rice at IRRI (IRRI
  1989)

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Perennial Upland Rice
Survival during the dry season Planted July
1999 Photographed May 2000
O. sativa/O. rufipogon
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High yield perennials?

• Natural selection doesnt select for grain yield
  per areabut we do
• Plant breeding is about adapting plants to a new,
  agricultural environment
• Perennials can use more resources (light, water,
  N, etc.) to fix more carbon than annuals, leaving
  some for overwintering. Perennating is not just a
  costit is an investment.

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Yield Increase in Soybean
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Wild Annual
Annual Grain
Wild Perennial
Perennial Grain
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New Research Directions

• Dissecting the genetic and physiological controls
  of important perenniality traits like rhizome
  production and tillering

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Rhz3
Rhz2
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Developing markers for important genes that limit
seed yield in outcrossing perennials
Conclusions This study has identified two genomic
regions with major influence on reduced
seed-setting ability. The first, on LG4,
identified as a recessive mutation in a finished
variety of perennial ryegrass and which results
in almost complete sterility, is an example of
the high mutational load that outcrossing
perennial ryegrass carries.
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Developing high-throughput methods for chromosome
identification in partial amphiploids
GISH Results
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www.landinstitute.org
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Yield gains in Maize

• Modern varieties of corn have greater tolerance
  to
• Cool nighttime temperatures
• Drought
• Low soil N
• High plant populations
• New varieties have increased allocation to roots
  and take up more N during grain filling
• Higher leaf angles may increase yield 20
• Reduced leaf respiration may have increased yields

Source Tollenaar and Wu 1999
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Can Herbaceous Perennials Produce More
Aboveground Biomass than Annuals?
Nebraska On-farm Alfalfa and Soybean Yields
(Kg/ha), 1990-2003
Source U.S. Department of Agriculture National
Agricultural Statistics Service,
http//www.usda.gov/nass/.