Crop Science and Plant Breeding - Forage Crops

 

Goals

Breeding Goals

Long term goals in breeding that require inputs from fundamental research include: 

  • Incorporation of genomics assisted breeding to accelerate genetic gain.
  • Exploiting genome sequence data to better understand traits and direct crosses
  • Use of new technology (drones, machine learning, AI) for phenotyping in the field.
  • Breeding targets for zero carbon and climate friendly farming – carbon sequestration, root   growth, resilience to climate change, persistency. 
  • Improvement of nutrient use efficiency to reduce inputs.
  • Breeding forages with improved quality traits that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. 
  • Novel uses of forage crops, pulses and oats, such as extraction of protein for monogastric feed
    and plant-based diets.
  • Improved resilience of grain quality traits (oats) as demanded by millers and end-users. 
  • Multistress tolerance & resilience to sudden adverse weather events (drought, waterlogging). 
  • Improvement of breeding efficiency (accuracy of selection) using high throughput phenotyping. 
  • Pre-breeding to identify novel alleles and increase genetic diversity.
  • Understanding of adaptation- matching phenology to environment.
  • Development of benchmarks for farmers and crop growth models.
  • The addressing of the agricultural productivity gap through improvements in crop yield and yield stability.
  • New methods of plant breeding (gene editing, speed breeding) and recombination control

Current Projects

Current Projects

Core Strategic Programme in Resilient Crops BBSRC (2017-2022)   
BBS/E/W/0012843A http://www.resilientcrops.org 
 
Oat domestication - understanding the origin of a European cereal 
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
Grant number: BB/S008195/1 (2018-2021) 
 
Genetic improvement of pea to replace soyabean in the diets of poultry and monogastric livestock (PeaGen) BBSRC Link BB/P017517 https://www.pgro.org/peagen-project/ (2017-22) 
 
Food BioSystems Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) (2019-2021) https://research.reading.ac.uk/foodbiosystems/ 
 
Oat Breeding (industrial funding from Senova) 
 
Pulse Breeding (industrial funding from UK Pulses) 
 
Nitrogen and sulphur fertiliser management for yield and quality in winter and spring oats (NoatS) AHDB 2018-2022 
 
The influence of genotype, environment and management factors on yield development, grain filling and grain quality in oats (Walsh Fellowship) 
 
Understanding milling efficiency in oats: developing tools to improve grain quality (Walsh Fellowship) 
 
“Grazing tolerant red clover for future livestock farming”. CIEL Seed Funding (2020-2021). Germinal with IBERS (£50K) 
 
“Red clover as a cash crop: Protein for monogastric farm animals and metabolites for human health (RC-Promo)”. WEFO SMARTExpertise 2020/82292 (2020-2022) IBERS, Germinal Holdings Ltd, Blue Sky Botanics – (£264K) 
 
“Improved resistance of red clover to soil borne pathogens for sustainable livestock production”. WEFO SMARTExpertise 2017/COL/008 (2018-2021) IBERS, Germinal Holdings Ltd and Hybu Cig Cymru – (£250K) 
 
“Maximising the value of commercial forage grass seed production”. Innovate UK/BBSRC 93314-562353/TS/R005133/1 (2017-2020) Germinal Holdings and IBERS - Co-I (£207K) 
 
“EUCLEG - Breeding forage and grain legumes to increase EU's and China's protein self-sufficiency”. EU Horizon 2020 (H2020-SFS-2016-2 727312-2). 38 partners (2017-2021) - (€5M) - http://www.eucleg.eu
 
“Genetics of crown rot resistance in red clover” KESS II PhD studentship (2017-2020) IBERS and Germinal Holdings –  (£52K) 
 
“Genomic selection for utilisation, seed production and animal health traits in white clover” (2017-2021) Teagasc Walsh Fellowship – (€145K) 

Completed Projects

Recently completed projects

 
BBBSRC-LINK, AHDB,  Developing enhanced breeding methodologies for oats for human health and nutrition (InnovOat) 2014- 2019 Industry partners Senova and BOBMA http://www.innovoat.uk/ 
 
Optimising oat yield and quality to deliver sustainable production and economic impact (Opti-Oat) Innovate UK 2014-2018 https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FM02749X%2F1 
 
UKRI-NRC Prototyping Root System Architecture in Avena: Technologies for Environmental Sustainability and Food Security BB/S020926/1 
 
“Novel strategies for genetic improvement of disease resistance in perennial ryegrass”. Innovate UK/BBSRC 47055-329315/ BB/M028267/1. (2015-2020) Germinal Holdings and IBERS (£730K) 
 
“Comparative population genomics of red clover domestication and improvement” BBSRC-IPA BB/L023563/1 with TGAC and Germinal Holdings (2014-2017) (£741K) 
 
“Genomics-assisted breeding for fatty acid content and composition in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) BBSRC LINK1 award (with Germinal Holdings and Hybu Cig Cymru) BB/K017160/1 (2013-2018) (£999,435) 
 
GIANT-LINK: Genetic improvement of miscanthus as a sustainable feedstock for bioenergy in the UK (£6.4M) 
 
MUST: Miscanthus upscaling technology (£1.8M) 

Principal Investigators

Principal Investigators

Picture Name Email Telephone
Prof Ian Armstead ipa@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823108
Dr Maurice Bosch mub@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823103
Dr Narcis Fernandez Fuentes naf4@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 621680
Prof Huw Jones hdj2@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823015
Prof Alison Kingston-Smith ahk@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823062
Dr Dylan Phillips dwp@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 621617
Dr Danny Thorogood dnt@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823176
Prof Rattan Yadav rsy@aber.ac.uk +44 (0) 1970 823174

Publications

Publications

Canales, FJ, Montilla-Bascón, G, Bekele, WA, Howarth, C, Langdon, T, Rispail, N, Tinker, NA & Prats, E 2021, 'Population genomics of Mediterranean oat (A. sativa) reveals high genetic diversity and three loci for heading date', Theoretical and Applied Genetics, vol. 134, no. 7, pp. 2063-2077. 10.1007/s00122-021-03805-2
Isidro-Sánchez, J, Prats, E, Howarth, C, Langdon, T & Montilla-bascón, G 2020, Genomic Approaches for Climate Resilience Breeding in Oats. in C Kole (ed.), Genomic Designing of Climate-Smart Cereal Crops. Springer Nature, pp. 133-169. 10.1007/978-3-319-93381-8_4
Mellers, G, Mackay, I, Cowan, S, Griffiths, I, Martinez-Martin, M, Poland, JA, Bekele, WA, Tinker, NA, Bentley, A & Howarth, C 2020, 'Implementing within‐cross genomic prediction to reduce oat breeding costs', The Plant Genome, vol. 13, no. 1, e20004. 10.1002/tpg2.20004
Galyuon, IK, Gay, A, Hash, CT, Bidinger, FR & Howarth, C 2019, 'A comparative assessment of the performance of a stay-green sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) introgression line developed by marker-assisted selection and its parental lines', African Journal of Biotechnology, vol. 18, no. 26, 7118D0361330, pp. 548-563. 10.5897/AJB2019.16826
Clifton-Brown, J, Harfouche, A, Casler, M, Jones, H, MacAlpine, WJ, Murphy-Bokern, D, Smart, L, Adler, A, Ashman, CR, Awty-Carroll, D, Bastien, C, Bopper, S, Botnari, V, Brancourt-Hulmel, M, Chen, Z, Clark, L, Cosentino, S, Dalton, S, Davey, C, Dolstra, O, Donnison, I, Flavell, R, Greef, JM, Hanley, S, Hastings, A, Hertzberg, M, Hsu, TW, Huang, L, Iurato, A, Jensen, E, Jin, X, Jørgensen, U, Kiesel, A, Kim, D-S, Liu, J, McCalmont, JP, McMahon, GG, Mos, M, Robson, P, Sacks, EJ, Sandu, A, Scalici, G, Schwarz, K, Scordia, D, Shafiei, R, Shield, IF, Slavov, G, Stanton, B, Swaminathan, K, Taylor, G, Torres, AF, Trindade, LM, Tschaplinski, T, Tuskan, J, Yamada, T, Yu, CY, Zalesny, R-F, Zong, J & Lewandowski, I 2019, 'Breeding progress and preparedness for mass‐scale deployment of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar', GCB Bioenergy, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 118-151. 10.1111/gcbb.12566
Paczos-Grzęda, E, Sowa, S, Boczkowska, M & Langdon, T 2019, 'Detached leaf assays for resistance to crown rust reveal diversity within populations of Avena sterilis L.', Plant Disease, vol. 103, no. 5, pp. 832-840. 10.1094/PDIS-06-18-1045-RE
Maughan, PJ, Lee, R, Walstead, R, Vickerstaff, RJ, Fogarty, MC, Brouwer, CR, Reid, RR, Jay, JJ, Bekele, WA, Jackson, EW, Tinker, NA, Langdon, T, Schlueter, JA & Jellen, EN 2019, 'Genomic insights from the first chromosome-scale assemblies of oat (Avena spp.) diploid species', BMC Biology, vol. 17, no. 1, 92. 10.1186/s12915-019-0712-y

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