2012 Dryland Field Day Abstracts - Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences ...

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2012 Field Day Abstracts: Highlights of Research Progress
chromosome 5D controls endosperm vitreosity and grain hardness. Currently the lab is working on grant-funded research aimed at
better understanding the fate of fiber and phytonutrients in whole wheat products during processing. Recent wheat varieties that
have been developed in collaboration with WSU, OSU and USDA-ARS scientists include Babe, Cara, Diva, Farnum, JD, Kelse, ORCF-
103, Skiles, Tubbs 06, Whit, and Xerpha.
Comparison of Linear Mixed Models for Multiple Environment Plant Breeding Trials
Carl A. Walker 1 , Fabiano Pita 2 , and Kimberly Garland Campbell 1,3
1 Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, WSU; 2 Quantitative Genetics Group, Dow AgroSciences; 3 USDA-ARS, Wheat Genetics,
Quality, Physiology, and Disease Research Unit
Evaluations of cultivars and breeding lines in multiple environments under varied environmental conditions often show genotype
by environment interactions. Two examples of these types of trials are the WA Cereal Variety testing program and the breeder
nurseries operated by the breeding programs. Genotype by environment interactions are especially prevalent in Washington
where rainfall zones and cropping systems vary considerably. These interactions indicate that cultivars don't respond consistently
among environments, and when they occur, the performance of genotypes must be estimated within each environment. Instead
of simply taking the mean of the replicates of a cultivar within an environment, empirical best linear unbiased predictions can
provide more accurate estimates of the cultivar performance, depending upon the statistical model used. The objective of this
work was to simulate and analyze data sets from multiple-environment trials, based on the WA cereal variety trial data, to
determine which linear models provide the most accurate estimates of cultivar performance. Simulations varied in terms of
numbers of cultivars and environments, variances and covariances of responses within and between environments, experimental
design, and experimental error variance. Statistical models that accounted for genetic relationships among cultivars and also for
relationships among environments (for example relationships among environments in similar rainfall regions) were consistently
more accurate than other models. The outcome of this research is to recommend that cultivar performance be predicted using
models that account for these relationships.
Breeding of Value-Added Barley by Incorporation of Protein-engineered Beta-Glucanase and
Endochitinase
D. Von Wettstein, S. Rustgi, and N. Ankrah; Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences and School of Molecular Biosciences, WSU
It is the primary goal of the present project to exploit and use the excellent possibilities of breeding barley cultivars by synthesizing
value adding enzymes in the developing grain. Goal in the recent years was to assess possible adverse effects of transgene
expression in leaves of field-grown barley relative to i) the influence of genetic background and ii) effect of plant interaction with
arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Goal (2) was to apply global parallel transcript profiling, metabolome profiling and metabolic
fingerprinting to evaluate possible transgene-induced differences relative to cultivar specific expression patterns.
Parallel transcript and metabolome profiling and metabolic fingerprinting on wild-type accessions and barley transgenics with (i)
seed-specific expression of (1,3-1,4)-beta-glucanase (GluB) in the cultivar Baronesse as well as of transgenics in the Golden Promise
background with (ii) ubiquitous expression of codon-optimized Trichoderma harzianum endochitinase.
More than 1600 differential transcripts were found between Golden Promise and Baronesse, with defense genes being strongly
over represented in Baronesse, indicating a divergent response to subclinical pathogen challenge in the field. In contrast, no
statistically significant differences between transgenics expressing endochitinase and Golden Promise could be detected based on
transcriptome or metabolome analysis, while 22 genes and 4 metabolites were differentially abundant when comparing
transgenics expressing betaglucanase and Baronesse, leading to the distinction of these two genotypes in principal component
analysis. The co-regulation of most of these genes in the betaglucanase expressing plants and Golden Promise as well as simple
sequence repeat marker analysis suggests that the distinctive alleles in betaglucanase producing plants are inherited from Golden
Promise. Thus the effect of the two investigated transgenes on the global transcript profiles is substantially lower than the effect of
a minor number of alleles that differ as a consequence of crop breeding. Exposing roots to the spores of the mycorrhizal Glomus
sp. had little effect on the leaf transcriptome but central leaf metabolism was consistently altered in all genotypes.
METHODS: A 44,000 barley microarray was developed based on the assembly of 444,652 barley ESTS into 28,001 contigs and
22,937 singletons, of which 13,265 are represented on the array for transcriptome analysis. Metabolome profiling and metabolic