(Editorial comment)

Dr. K. Murai summarized the meeting report of "The Forth Triticeae Meeting of Japan, 2009" held on November 27 and 28 in Awara Hot Spring, Fukui, Japan. We circulate the abstracts of oral presentations and the titles of poster presentations as edited by Dr. Murai.

The Forth Triticeae Meeting of Japan, 2009

Koji Murai

Department of Bioscience, Fukui Prefectural University, 4-1-1 Matsuoka-kenjojima, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-1195, Japan

E-mail: murai@fpu.ac.jp

The Forth Triticeae Meeting of Japan was held at Awara Hot Spring, Fukui on November 27 and 28, 2009. Eighty-three researchers including students from universities and institutes participated in the meeting. We had one special lecture, one panel discussion with plenary lecture, six oral presentations, and forty-seven poster presentations. The abstracts of oral presentations and poster titles are listed below. Young researchers and students as well as elder researchers had a good opportunity to know a wide field of Triticeae research, and all participants enjoyed local foods and hot spring in Fukui (Fig. 1). Next meeting will be held in Hokkaido area next year. I thank all participants for joining the meeting.

Special lecture

Problems and perspectives of wheat and barley production in japan - based on changes in agricultural and food policies and a case of Fukui Prefecture -

Taichi Kitagawa

Department of Economic Science, Fukui Prefectural University

Panel Discussion

Keynote lecture

Wheat research in Japan: how can it contribute to the world community?

Masa Iwanaga

Director General, National Institute of Crop Science

The author argued that: (1) wheat research in Japan had made major contribution to scientific advancement for polyploidy genetics and crop evolution during 1920’s to 1990’s,  (2) wheat’s relative importance for genetics as model species, however, has declined since then, (3) wheat breeding and genetics contributed to crop improvement as exemplified by successful use of Japanese genetic resources for the development of high-yielding semi-dwarf wheats with wide adaptation that triggered “Green Revolution”, (4) wheat research in Japan should and can contribute to global environmental and food problems by focusing its objectives to such global problems.  Wheat is unique in the sense that a vast amount of genetic diversity is available for crop breeding. Moreover, recent technological progress for effective use of exotic germplasm for variety development now makes it possible for tapping such a diverse germplasm for practical variety development. This will present a new opportunity for wheat research to be regarded as a model for science application for social causes.     

Oral Presentation

O01. Current status of the polymorphism survey project by NBRP-wheat: perspective for adopting SSR markers in map-based cloning of agronomically important genes

Shuhei Nasuda

Laboratory of Plant Genetics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University

The National Bioresource Project-Wheat (NBRP-Wheat), launched by the Japanese government in 2002, is aimed to maintain and distribute seed stocks and DNA clones of wheat. Additionally to its primary roles in handling seed stocks and DNA clones, the second-term NBRP-Wheat, started in 2007, features the collection and characterization of DNA markers. The objectives of the project are; (1) to make the resources of the NBRP-Wheat more valuable for molecular studies by addition of genotype information, and (2) to find a set of DNA markers that is suitable for detecting polymorphisms among wheat samples. In this presentation, I reported current status of our effort to demonstrate PCR-amplification profiles and discussed possible use of the markers in map-based cloning projects. The 48 plant lines (NBRP polymorphism panel) subjected to survey includes; eight Aegilops species with representative diploid genomes, Triticum monococcum, T. boeoticum, T. urartu, T. durum, T. spelta and 31 hexaploid wheat accessions. We also took samples of Hordeum vulgare, H. spontaneum, and Secale cereale as outgroup species. One of the characteristics of our polymorphism panel is that we have many Japanese cultivars being used in ongoing wheat breeding programs. We started our survey with those SSR markers mapped by Somers et al. (2004). So far, we obtained amplification profiles of more than 1100 SSR primers for the 48 lines. The electrophoretic patterns and the associated information are provided to researcher upon request through the NBRP-wheat web site (http://www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/wheat/komugi/strains/aboutNbrpMarker.jsp). Collaborating with Dr. Y. Yamazaki at National Institute of Genetics, Japan, we are developing an interactive database of SSR markers, where the researchers are able to access to electrophoretic patterns, primer sequences and conditions for PCR. People can also find possible polymorphic markers between given two lines in the NBRP panel. The database is to open to public in December 2009. We will also propose a set of 210 SSR markers that would be useful for polymorphism survey in hexaploid wheat.

The working scheme for map-based cloning could be divided into four steps; (1) rough mapping, (2) fine mapping, (3) construction of BAC contigs, and (4) identification of candidate genes. Our data on SSR markers will help researchers roughly map their gene-of-interest. For fine mapping, however, our SSR markers are not sufficient to find markers tightly linked to the target gene. Our effort should be oriented towards using advanced genome information of related species, i.e., barley, rice, and maize. Equally important would be use of tetraploid and diploid progenitors in fine mapping projects so that we can overcome the limited diversity intrinsic to hexaploid wheat genomes.

O02. Studies on Cleistogamous barley

Ning Wang

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences

Natural variants of barley have been described in which the palea and lemma remain tightly closed throughout the period of pollen release. Such closed flowering is known as cleistogamy. The size of the lodicule in the cleistogamous flower is typically smaller than that in the noncleistogamous type. Cleistogamy also provides a means of escape from cereal head blight infection and minimizes pollen-mediated gene flow. We have isolated cleistogamy1 (Cly1) by positional cloning and show that it encodes an AP2 transcription factor, which is an ortholog of Arabidopsis thaliana AP2. The expression of Cly1 was concentrated within the lodicule primordia. We established a perfect association between a synonymous nucleotide substitution at the miR172 targeting site and cleistogamy. Cleavage of mRNA directed by miR172 was detectable only in a noncleistogamous background. We conclude that the miR172-derived down-regulation of Cly1 promotes the development of the lodicules, thereby ensuring noncleistogamy, although the single nucleotide change at the miR172 targeting site results in the failure of the lodicules to develop properly, producing the cleistogamous phenotype.

O03. Diversity and wide adaptability of heading time-related genes in wheat and barley

Hidetaka Nishida

Grad. Sch. Nat. Sci. Tech, Okayama University

Heading time of wheat and barley is a complex character comprised of vernalization requirement, photoperiodic response, and earliness per se. Each character is controlled by multiple genes. Many of them are shared by wheat and barley. Allelic variations in these genes enable wheat and barley to adapt to the different climate conditions in the world. In Japan, early-heading has been a desirable character that enables double-cropping with summer crops and avoids maturing at rainy season, intermittent rain of which causes pre-harvest sprouting. However, new problem is arising by the frequent occurrence of warm winter caused by global climate change. Warm winter makes ears develop extremely earlier than usual winter. They suffer from transient chilling temperature in early spring and result in death and yield decrease. To avoid such problems, understanding of genetic control of heading time is increasing its importance. Vernalization genes, Vrn-1, Vrn-2, and Vrn-3, and photoperiodic response genes, Ppd-1 and Ppd-2 have already cloned. Recent progress in molecular studies on these genes facilitated the detection of allelic variations and genotyping of many landraces by using DNA markers. We analyzed the geographical distribution of alleles for some of these genes in wheat and discussed their roles on adaptability. We also compared the results of genotyping by molecular markers and conventional test cross and discussed the application of the markers for marker assisted selection.

O04. Association Breeding Strategies: From Theory to Practice

Mark E. Sorrells¹, Jean-Luc Jannink², Elliot L. Heffner¹, and Aaron Lorenz²

¹Cornell University, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

²USDA-ARS, R.W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 14853

Association breeding strategies utilize phenotypic and genotypic information to increase gain from selection and reduce selection cycle time. Three approaches will be elaborated that utilize molecular marker information for crop improvement: 1) association breeding which uses association mapping in a breeding program, 2) marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS), and 3) genomic selection (GS). Plant breeders frequently introduce new germplasm into their breeding programs and discard undesirable materials resulting in new marker/QTL associations that must be evaluated frequently. Association breeding and MARS are are based on the selection of statistically significant, marker-trait associations. Association breeding facilitates the discovery of novel alleles whose relative allelic value can be assessed as often as necessary. In contrast, genomic selection incorporates genome-wide marker information in a breeding value prediction model, thereby avoiding biased marker effect estimates and capturing more of the variation due to small effect QTL.  In genomic selection, a training population representative of the breeding germplasm is genotyped with genome-wide markers and phenotyped in a target set of environments. That data is used to train a prediction model.  The prediction model is used to estimate the breeding values of lines in a population using only the marker scores.  Prediction models can incorporate performance over multiple environments, G x E effects, specific screening techniques, and novel expertise.  Because of reduced generation time, annual genetic gain for GS is predicted to be two to three fold greater than for a conventional marker-assisted selection program, even with only a modest prediction accuracy of 0.50.

O05. Variation of wheat, barley, rye and their related species in the countries formerly belonging to the Soviet Union

Hisashi Tsujimoto

Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University

Wheat and barley were born in the western Asia and transmitted to the eastern Asia across barriers of high mountains, desert and/or cold weather. To reveal the routes of their transmission we have been investigating the genetic variation of cultivated and wild species of Triticeae in the remote areas of China and its outside regions. In this context we were interested in the plants in the regions formerly belonging to the Soviet Union. Dr. K. Sato (RIB, Okayama Univ.) and I first visited N. I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR), Russia, in 2006 to look for the collaborators in the regions. After detailed planning with the researchers in VIR, we practiced explorations in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2008, and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2009. The Japanese members in the explorations were Drs. K. Sato, K. Kato, and H. Nishida (Okayama University), H. Tsujimoto and H. Tanaka (Tottori University), and H. Tsuyuzaki (Akita Prefectural University). We observed great variation of wheat, barley, rye and their wild species. Especially, the adaptive strategy of rye from wild to cultivated fields that was investigated in Armenia, and restoration from the modern cultivars to the traditional landraces that was observed in Tajikistan were reported. These studies were supported by Grant-in-Aid, MEX, Japan (Dr. Takeda, 19255009).

O06. Wheat breeding in the northern part of India using Imperata cylindrica-mediated system

Yasuhiko Mukai

Division of Natural Sciences, Osaka Kyouiku University, Kashiwara, Osaka 582-8582, Japan

Compared to other systems using maize and finger millet for haploid production, Imperata cylindrica-mediated system has many advantages such as coincidence with wheat flowering and abundant pollen availability throughout the day. Imperata plants grow in wild around whet fields and do not require cultivation in polyhouse as it is a wild weedy species, resulting in energy saving. These advantages suggest that haploid production using Imperata system has potential to be the most useful methods in exercising doubled haploid breeding in wheat for accelerating the genetic upgraded programs with enhanced precision and efficiency (Chaudhary et al, 2005). Although Imperata cylindrica is known as one of the ten world’s worst weeds, it is the most useful plant for haploid production in wheat breeding. The productivity of the wheat in the northern part of Indian subcontinent is adversely affected on account of damages inflicted by abiotic and biotic stress to the bread wheat varieties that are currently under cultivation. Therefore, under the sponsorship of international collaboration program of JSPS (Japan Society of Promotion of Science) and DST (Department of Science and Technology, India) we are aiming to breed a new variety of bread wheat that has a part of chromatin from rye to confer resistance to various abiotic and biotic stresses. The research is currently underway as follows; 1) molecular cytogenetic analysis of the newly developed wheat recombinants for the desired rye chromatin, 2) development of doubled haploid (DH) populations from the triticale x wheat, following chromosome elimination technique, and 3) cytological and genetic mechanism of haploid production using Imperata cylindrica pollen.

Poster Presentation

P01.

Heading traits and flowering time-gene expression patterns in the alloplasmic wheat lines showing late-heading compared with the euplasmic lines

Shimada, S. and K. Murai (Fukui Prefectural University)

P02.

Expression patterns of wheat FLOWERING LOCUS T (WFT) derived from Aegilops tauschii in synthetic hexaploid wheats

Fujiwara, Y. and K. Murai (Fukui Prefectural University)

P03.

Microarray analysis of genes for pistillody, homeotic transformation of stamens into pistil-like structures in alloplasmic wheat line

Yamamoto, M. and K. Murai (Fukui Prefectural University)

P04.

Analysis of chasmogamy and cleistogamy in Hordeum

Ishihara, N., N. Wang, T. Komatsuda and K. Kakeda (Mie University)

P05.

Molecular analysis of the self-incompatibility (S) locus in Hordeum bulbosum

Matsuda, T. and K. Kakeda (Mie University)

P06.

Characterization of Japanese old wheat grown in Edo period

Kobayashi, F. (NIAS, JSPS Research Fellow)

P07.

Analysis of MRP gene located on homoeologous group 2 chromosomes in common wheat

Kikuchi, R. and H. Handa (NIAS)

P08.

Genotyping of Japanese wheat cultivars by DNA markers associated with wheat yellow mosaic virus resistant gene, YmIb

Kojima H.¹, Z. Nishio², M. Seki¹, H. Matsunaka^1,3, C. Otobe¹and S. Oda¹(¹NICS, NARO, ²NARCH, NARO, ³KONARC, NARO)

P09.

Allelic variation on the crossability of common wheat

Mishina, K.¹, A. Manickavelu², H. Sato¹, M. Katsumata¹, H. Sassa¹ and T. Koba¹ (¹Laboratory of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, ²Laboratory of Plant Genome Science, Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University)

P10.

Identification of barley chromosomes in the addition lines of common wheat by molecular markers and GISH

Kawaguchi, T., Y. Gunji, S. Kikuchi and T. Koba (Laboratory of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University)

P11.

Chromosome pairing in the amphidiploid between T. durum cv. Langdon and Ae. uniaristata

Nagataki, K., S. Kikuchi and T. Koba (Laboratory of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Graduate Shool of Horticulture, Chiba University)

P12.

Genetic study on spike morphology of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum)

Abdollahi, P., A. Manickavelu, K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P13.

Analysis of global expression patterns in wheat during the allopolyploidization course

Kouyama, S., K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P14.

Molecular characterization of wheat NAC genes in response to salt-stress

Tetus, Y., A. Hoshikawa, M. Saito, K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P15.

Genetic diversity and global analysis of gene expression patterns in Chinese wheat cultivars for salt response

Naruse, T., A. Hoshikawa, K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P16.

Promoter analysis of APETALA2-like genes in common wheat

Umehara, T., M. Yasumoro, M. Takaku, K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P17.

Production of transgenic wheat suppressing α/β-gliadins by the RNAi method and their protein profiles revealed by the 2D-PAGE

Nakamura, M., M. Saito, Y. Tetsu, K. Kawaura, Y. Ogihara (KIBR, Yokohama City U.)

P18.

Comparative gene expression analysis of susceptible and resistance line in common wheat infected by Puccinia triticina

Manickavelu, A.¹, K. Kawaura¹, N. Yahiaoui², B. Keller², A. Suzuki³, K. Yano³, Y. Ogihara¹ (¹KIBR, Yokohama City U., ²Inst. Plant Biology, U. Zurich, ³Fac. Agr., Meiji U.) 

P19.

Structure of multigene encoding α/β-gliadin in wheat genome

Kawaura, K.¹, J. Wu², T. Matsumoto², H. Kanamori³, S. Katagiri³, Y. Ogihara¹(¹KIBR, Yokohama City U., ²NIAS, ³STAFF Inst.)

P20.

Relationship between amylose content and soft flour baking quality

Nishio, Z. (NARC Hokkaido)

P21.

Analysis of the floral homeotic genes in barley

Shitsukawa, N. (Res. Inst. Bioresour., Okayama U.)

P22.

Transcriptome analysis of hexaploid wheat synthetic lines showing type 2 hybrid necrosis

Mizuno, N. and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P23.

Transcriptome analysis of aborted growth phenotype in triploid hybrids between tetraploid wheat and Ae. tauschii

Hatano, H., N. Mizuno and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P24.

Expression patterns of senescence-associated genes during wheat development

Kajimura, T. and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P25.

Alternative splicing of the WDREB2 transcripts in ABA-sensitivity mutants of common wheat

Kurahashi, Y., F. Kobayashi and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P26.

Comparison of three homoeologous cDNAs encoding aminolevulinic acid dehydratase in common wheat

Takenouchi, U. and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P27.

Preliminary analysis of QTL identification for cold-responsive gene expression using recombinant inbred lines of common wheat

Motomura, Y., F. Kobayashi and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P28.

Variation of ABA sensitivity at the seedling stage of hexaploid synthetic wheat lines

Iehisa, M. O. J., Y. Kurahashi and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P29.

Association analysis of heading time and nucleotide sequence of a TaHd1 ortholog in Aegilops tauschii

Okamoto, E., Y. Okumura and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P30.

Natural variation of vernalization requirement for heading in Aegilops tauschii

Koyama, K., J. Nakamura and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P31.

Transcriptome analysis of hexaploid wheat synthetic lines showing hybrid chlorosis

Nakano, H., N. Mizuno and S. Takumi (Kobe U.)

P32.

Development of barley NILs for various functional polysaccharides content and their quality characteristics

Tonooka, T. (NICS)

P33.

Preliminary report for the use of Cot filtration in barley whole genome shot-gun analysis

Nankaku, N., Y. Motoi and K. Sato (RIB, Okayama University)

P34.

Estimation of whaterlogging tolerance in common wheat landraces in Yunnann province of China

Takata, K. (NARO)

P35.

cancelled

P36.

Deletion lines of chromosome 3B of Norin 26 wheat for deletion mapping of Igc1

Yamano, S. (Kyoto U.)

P37.

Identification of SSR markers associated with cleistogamy in hexaploid wheat

Sagara, Y. (Kyoto U.)

P38.

Super-wide hybridization in Triticeae/Avenae: possibility of involvement of cohesin in chromosome elimination

Ishii, T., T. Ueda, H. Tanaka, and H. Tsujimoto (Grad. Sch. Agric., Tottori Univ.)

P39.

Genetic variation in Aegilops tauschii accessions by using SSR marker

Tanaka, K., Y. Fujii, H. Tanaka and H. Tsujimoto (Grad. Sch. Agric., Tottori Univ.)

P40.

Effects of alien glutenin subunits expressed in common wheat endosperm on the protein profile

Arakawa, T., H. Tanaka and H. Tsujimoto (Grad. Sch. Agric., Tottori Univ.)

P41.

Identification of repetitive sequences in pearl millet wild relative, Pennisetum orientale

Matsumoto, N., T. Ishii, H. Tanaka and H. Tsujimoto (Grad. Sch. Agric., Tottori Univ.)

P42.

Mapping of MRP as the candidate gene for QTL to reduce mycotoxin accumulation in wheat grains

Niwa, S. (Kihara Insti.Biol. Res., Yokohama City U.)

P43.

Search for bulb formation factors in Hordeum bulbosum

Yoshikawa, M. (Kihara Insti.Biol. Res., Yokohama City U.)

P44.

Genetic diversity and geographical differentiation of organellar genomes in Aegilops nelecta and Ae. columnaris

Yasugi, Y. (Kobe U.)

P45.

Genetic diversity of Indian wheat landraces revealed by chloroplast SSRLP analysis

Takagi, T. (Kobe U.)

P46.

Genetic diversity of dough physicality related to making noodle quality in cultivated tetraploid wheat

Taguchi, J. (Kihara Insti.Biol. Res., Yokohama City U.)

P47.

Multiplex quantitative analysis for trichothecene genes expression of Fusarium graminearum in different genotypes of wheat spikes

Miyazaki, T. (Kihara Insti.Biol. Res., Yokohama City U.)