ORCID Profile
0000-0002-1164-5598
Current Organisation
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
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Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 11-11-2021
Abstract: Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a good source of useful alleles for climate change adaptation. Here, 19 durum wheat, 24 barley, and 24 lentil elites incorporating CWR in their pedigrees were yield tested against commercial checks across 19 environments located in Morocco, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Senegal. For each crop, the combined analysis of variance showed that genotype (G), environment (E), and genotype x environment (G×E) effects were significant for most of the traits. A selection index combining yield potential (G) and yield stability (G×E) was used to identify six CWR-derived elites for each crop matching or superior to the best check. A regression analysis using a climate matrix revealed that grain yield was mostly influenced by the maximum daily temperature and soil moisture level during the growing stages. These climatic factors were used to define five clusters (i.e., E1 to E5) of mega-environments. The CWR-derived elites significantly outperformed the checks in E1, E2, and E4 for durum wheat, and in E2 for both barley and lentil. The germplasm was also assessed for several food transformation characteristics. For durum wheat, one accession (Zeina) originating from T. araraticum was significantly superior in mixograph score to the best check, and three accessions originating from T. araraticum and T. urartu were superior for Zn concentration. For barley, 21 accessions originating from H. spontaneum were superior to the checks for protein content, six for Zn content, and eight for β-glucan. For lentil, ten accessions originating from Lens orientalis were superior to the check for protein content, five for Zn, and ten for Fe concentration. Hence, the results presented here strongly support the use of CWR in breeding programs of these three dryland crops, both for adaptation to climatic stresses and for value addition for food transformation.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-05-2018
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 10-04-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-09-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-02-2016
DOI: 10.1111/PBI.12532
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 21-12-2020
Abstract: Representative, broad and erse collections are a primary resource to dissect genetic ersity and meet pre-breeding and breeding goals through the identification of beneficial alleles for target traits. From 2,500 tetraploid wheat accessions obtained through an international collaborative effort, a Global Durum wheat Panel (GDP) of 1,011 genotypes was assembled that captured 94–97% of the original ersity. The GDP consists of a wide representation of Triticum turgidum ssp. durum modern germplasm and landraces, along with a selection of emmer and primitive tetraploid wheats to maximize ersity. GDP accessions were genotyped using the wheat iSelect 90K SNP array. Among modern durum accessions, breeding programs from Italy, France and Central Asia provided the highest level of genetic ersity, with only a moderate decrease in genetic ersity observed across nearly 50 years of breeding (1970–2018). Further, the breeding programs from Europe had the largest sets of unique alleles. LD was lower in the landraces (0.4 Mbp) than in modern germplasm (1.8 Mbp) at r 2 = 0.5. ADMIXTURE analysis of modern germplasm defined a minimum of 13 distinct genetic clusters ( k ), which could be traced to the breeding program of origin. Chromosome regions putatively subjected to strong selection pressure were identified from fixation index ( F st ) and ersity reduction index ( DRI ) metrics in pairwise comparisons among decades of release and breeding programs. Clusters of putative selection sweeps (PSW) were identified as co-localized with major loci controlling phenology ( Ppd and Vrn ), plant height ( Rht ) and quality (gliadins and glutenins), underlining the role of the corresponding genes as driving elements in modern breeding. Public seed availability and deep genetic characterization of the GDP make this collection a unique and ideal resource to identify and map useful genetic ersity at loci of interest to any breeding program.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-05-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S00122-013-2111-Z
Abstract: Since the dawn of wheat cytogenetics, chromosome 3B has been known to harbor a gene(s) that, when removed, causes chromosome desynapsis and gametic sterility. The lack of natural genetic ersity for this gene(s) has prevented any attempt to fine map and further characterize it. Here, gamma radiation treatment was used to create artificial ersity for this locus. A total of 696 radiation hybrid lines were genotyped with a custom mini array of 140 DArT markers, selected to evenly span the whole 3B chromosome. The resulting map spanned 2,852 centi Ray with a calculated resolution of 0.384 Mb. Phenotyping for the occurrence of meiotic desynapsis was conducted by measuring the level of gametic sterility as seeds produced per spikelet and pollen viability at booting. Composite interval mapping revealed a single QTL with LOD of 16.2 and r (2) of 25.6 % between markers wmc326 and wPt-8983 on the long arm of chromosome 3B. By independent analysis, the location of the QTL was confirmed to be within the deletion bin 3BL7-0.63-1.00 and to correspond to a single gene located ~1.4 Mb away from wPt-8983. The meiotic behavior of lines lacking this gene was characterized cytogenetically to reveal striking similarities with mutants for the dy locus, located on the syntenic chromosome 3 of maize. This represents the first ex le to date of employing radiation hybrids for QTL analysis. The success achieved by this approach provides an ideal starting point for the final cloning of this interesting gene involved in meiosis of cereals.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 24-07-2020
DOI: 10.3390/IJMS21155260
Abstract: Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum) production can experience significant yield losses due to crown rot (CR) disease. Losses are usually exacerbated when disease infection coincides with terminal drought. Durum wheat is very susceptible to CR, and resistant germplasm is not currently available in elite breeding pools. We hypothesize that deploying physiological traits for drought adaptation, such as optimal root system architecture to reduce water stress, might minimize losses due to CR infection. This study evaluated a subset of lines from a nested association mapping population for stay-green traits, CR incidence and yield in field experiments as well as root traits under controlled conditions. Weekly measurements of normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) in the field were used to model canopy senescence and to determine stay-green traits for each genotype. Genome-wide association studies using DArTseq molecular markers identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on chromosome 6B (qCR-6B) associated with CR tolerance and stay-green. We explored the value of qCR-6B and a major QTL for root angle QTL qSRA-6A using yield datasets from six rainfed environments, including two environments with high CR disease pressure. In the absence of CR, the favorable allele for qSRA-6A provided an average yield advantage of 0.57 t·ha−1, whereas in the presence of CR, the combination of favorable alleles for both qSRA-6A and qCR-6B resulted in a yield advantage of 0.90 t·ha−1. Results of this study highlight the value of combining above- and belowground physiological traits to enhance yield potential. We anticipate that these insights will assist breeders to design improved durum varieties that mitigate production losses due to water deficit and CR.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-07-2012
Abstract: The uneven distribution of recombination across the length of chromosomes results in inaccurate estimates of genetic to physical distances. In wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) chromosome 3B, it has been estimated that 90% of the cross over events occur in distal sub-telomeric regions representing 40% of the chromosome. Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping which does not rely on recombination is a strategy to map genomes and has been widely employed in animal species and more recently in some plants. RH maps have been proposed to provide i ) higher and ii ) more uniform resolution than genetic maps, and iii ) to be independent of the distribution patterns observed for meiotic recombination. An in vivo RH panel was generated for mapping chromosome 3B of wheat in an attempt to provide a complete scaffold for this ~1 Gb segment of the genome and compare the resolution to previous genetic maps. A high density RH map with 541 marker loci anchored to chromosome 3B spanning a total distance of 1871.9 cR was generated. Detailed comparisons with a genetic map of similar quality confirmed that i ) the overall resolution of the RH map was 10.5 fold higher and ii ) six fold more uniform. A significant interaction (r = 0.879 at p = 0.01) was observed between the DNA repair mechanism and the distribution of crossing-over events. This observation could be explained by accepting the possibility that the DNA repair mechanism in somatic cells is affected by the chromatin state in a way similar to the effect that chromatin state has on recombination frequencies in gametic cells. The RH data presented here support for the first time in vivo the hypothesis of non-casual interaction between recombination hot-spots and DNA repair. Further, two major hypotheses are presented on how chromatin compactness could affect the DNA repair mechanism. Since the initial RH application 37 years ago, we were able to show for the first time that the iii ) third hypothesis of RH mapping might not be entirely correct.
Location: Lebanon
No related grants have been discovered for Filippo Maria Bassi.