Sequencing and exploitation of the genetic diversity in Vietnamese native rice lines to serve research and breeding programs

我们建议在越南开发一个专注于农艺性状的现代水稻育种平台。大米是越南9000万人口的主食，也是越南的主要出口商品之一。作为一个全球领先的农业国，越南的经济产出和人口正在经历着异常的增长。然而，气候变化带来的威胁越来越大，如新出现的病原体、干旱时期和海平面上升。风险最大的地区是代表越南主要稻米种植区的红河和湄公河三角洲。快速选择对这些条件具有耐受性和恢复力的水稻品种，将有助于缓解其中一些挑战，并有助于确保越南的粮食安全。英国的基因组分析中心(TGAC)和越南的农业遗传研究所(AGI)开始了一项合作，对数量减少的越南水稻品种的基因组进行测序，目的是表征地方品系的遗传变异，并开发可用于加快水稻育种的分子标记。应用新的基因组学技术来改进作物育种是英国国家农业植物学研究所(NIAB)的优先事项之一。拟议的项目延续了TGAC和AGI之间发起的伙伴关系，作为与NIAB的合作。我们的目标是扩大试验项目第一阶段，以完成约600条线路的重新排序。我们将通过数据库的开发和生物信息学管道的应用来补充这些数据的生成，以确定等位基因与特定表型的关联。我们希望能够鉴定出能够更有效地培育水稻的标记。现代技术在水稻育种中的应用也将提供一个很好的例子，说明这些策略如何应用于其他植物物种，如小麦和大麦。水稻具有简单的基因组，已经为其生成了许多基因组资源，它为评估和评估新的育种策略提供了一个极好的模型，这些策略以后可以应用于更复杂的作物。与越南的这项合作还将提供与具有水稻育种和农学经验的世界领先科学家合作的机会。

We propose to develop a modern platform for rice breeding in Vietnam focused on traits of agronomic interest. Rice is a staple food for a population of 90 million in Vietnam and it is also one of the main exporter commodities of the country. Vietnam is experiencing an exceptional growth in its economic output and population rising as a global leading agricultural country. There is, however, an increasing threat from climate change such as emerging pathogens, periods of droughts and rising sea levels. The areas under greatest risk are the deltas of the Red and Mekong rivers, which represent the major rice growing regions of Vietnam. The rapid selection of rice varieties that are tolerant and resilient to these conditions will help to mitigate some of these challenges and contribute to ensure food security in Vietnam. The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) in the UK and the Agricultural Genetics Institute (AGI) in Vietnam initiated a collaboration to sequence the genome of a reduced number of Vietnamese rice varieties with the purpose to characterise the genetic variations in native lines and develop molecular markers that could be used to accelerate rice breeding. The application of new genomics technologies to improve crop breeding is one of the priorities at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) at UK. The proposed project continues the partnership initiated between TGAC and AGI as a collaboration with NIAB. We aim at expanding the pilot project phase I to complete the re-sequencing of around 600 lines. We will complement the generation of these data with the development of databases and the application of bioinformatics pipelines to identify associations of alleles with specific phenotypes. We expect to characterise markers that will enable more efficient rice breeding. The application of modern technologies to rice breeding will also provide an excellent example of how these strategies could be applied to other plant species such as wheat and barley. Rice has a simple genome for which many genomics resources have been already generated and it offers an excellent model for the evaluation and assessment of new strategies for breeding that could later be applied to more complex crops. This collaboration with Vietnam will also open opportunities to work with world leading scientists with experience in rice breeding and agronomy.