Arable: Emerging disease threats in the high-value speciality oilseed crop 'Ahiflower'

NIAB和国际自然作物协会已经合作超过15年，将Buglossoides arvensis植物从一种可耕种的杂草开发成一种特种油籽作物（商品名：Ahiflower），该作物仅在英国种植。Ahiflower是最丰富的omega脂肪酸的植物来源，这种有益健康的化合物也存在于油性鱼类中。这种作物是一种素食主义者友好的、可持续的欧米茄来源：据估计，一英亩的阿希弗罗可以生产与32万条凤尾鱼一样多的富含欧米茄的油，从而减少了对受威胁的海洋生态系统的压力。全球对阿希米花油的需求不断增加，特别是在北美、英国、欧盟和东南亚，它主要用于人类和动物营养的健康膳食配方，以及化妆品和个人护理产品的新应用。这个项目将建立在我们现有合作的基础上，并调查作物种植者看到的一些新出现的疾病问题。其中第一种是腐脚病，它被认为是由土壤中几种真菌组成的复合体引起的，通常与深秋和冬季土壤浸水有关，当时作物仍处于生长缓慢的小植物阶段。脚腐病会对根部和茎的底部造成损害，使植物完全折断，不产生任何种子。我们将在接种过的花盆、试验田和农民的作物中寻找足腐的迹象，并从患病植物中提取土壤、根和茎样本进行实验室检测。这些测试将告诉我们哪些微生物可能会导致这种疾病，这是研究如何在未来更好地控制这种疾病的重要的第一步。第二种疾病是白粉病，也是由真菌引起的。霉病通常在季节后期出现，它会导致叶子变白、干燥和过早死亡。这导致产量降低和种子质量差。我们以前的工作表明，我们收集的一些阿希花植物比农民目前种植的最好品种更抗霉病。我们将检查这些结果是否可以在田间重复，如果是真的，我们将在抗性植物和高产品种之间进行杂交，作为提高其抗病性的第一步。我们还将进行一项实验，看看在温室中筛选植物能在多大程度上准确预测田间的抗霉性。如果可以，那么这也将帮助我们更有效地为农民培育未来的抗性品种。我们还将进行田间试验，以检验是否有办法降低这些疾病影响农民作物的风险。我们将测试杀菌剂、种子处理和植物饲料的不同组合，并在不同土壤的不同地点进行种植试验。这将建立一个在不同情况下哪种治疗方法最有效的图景。我们的试验结果将影响我们给农民的建议，以便他们能够在保护环境的同时继续从作物中获得最大收益。除了研究这些病害外，该项目还将首次开始在这种年轻作物上开发一些新的育种技术。我们将识别遗传标记（不同品种之间DNA序列的差异），这将使我们能够在未来的育种工作中跟踪基因和染色体的遗传，从父母到后代。我们将通过观察它们在幼苗中的遗传来测试这些标记是否有效，这些幼苗来自我们在抗霉和易霉亲本之间进行的杂交。我们开发的DNA序列差异文库可以用于未来更多的项目，这些项目将有助于提高这种新作物的产量、质量和抗病性。

NIAB and Natures Crops International have worked together for over 15 years in a collaboration to develop the Buglossoides arvensis plant from an arable weed into a speciality oilseed crop (tradename: Ahiflower), which is grown exclusively in the UK. Ahiflower is the richest plant source of combined omega fatty acids, health-giving compounds also found in oily fish. The crop is a vegan-friendly, sustainable omega source: it is estimated that one acre of Ahiflower can yield as much omega-rich oil as 320 000 anchovies, thus reducing pressure on threatened marine ecosystems. There is increasing global demand for Ahiflower oil, especially in North America, the UK, the EU and Southeast Asia, where it is mainly used in healthy dietary formulations for both human and animal nutrition, plus new applications in cosmetics and personal care products. This project will build on our existing collaboration and investigate some emerging disease problems seen by growers of the crop. The first of these is foot rot, which is thought to be caused by a complex consisting of several fungi in the soil, and is often associated with soils that become waterlogged during late autumn and winter when the crop is still establishing as small, slowly growing plants. Foot rot can cause damage to the roots and the bottom of the stem so that plants snap off completely and do not produce any seed. We will look in inoculated pots, trial plots and farmers crops for signs of foot rot, and send soil, root and stem samples from diseased plants for lab testing. These tests will tell us which organisms appear to be causing the disease, an important first step in working out how to control it better in the future.The second disease is powdery mildew, which is also caused by a fungus. Mildew is often seen in Ahiflower crops later in the season when it causes the leaves to turn white, dry up and die prematurely. This results in lower yields and poor seed quality. Our previous work has suggested that some Ahiflower plants from our collection are more resistant to mildew than the best varieties farmers are currently growing. We will check if these results can be repeated in the field, and if they are true, will make crosses between resistant plants and high-yielding varieties as a first step in improving their disease resistance. We will also carry out an experiment to see how well screening plants in the glasshouse can accurately predict mildew resistance in the field. If it can, then this will also help us to breed future resistant varieties for farmers more effectively.We will also grow field trials to test if there are any ways to reduce the risk of these diseases affecting farmers crops. We will test different combinations of fungicides, seed treatments and plant feeds, and grow trials at contrasting locations with different soils. This will build up a picture of which treatments work best in different situations. Our trial results will influence the advice we give to farmers so that they can continue to get the most out of their crops while still protecting the environment.As well as looking at these diseases, this project will also begin to develop some new breeding technologies for the first time in this young crop. We will identify genetic markers (differences in the DNA sequence between distinct varieties), which will allow us to track the inheritance of genes and chromosomes back from parents and forwards through the generations in future breeding work. We will test that these markers work by looking at their inheritance in seedlings from the crosses we made between mildew resistant and mildew susceptible parents. The library of DNA sequence differences that we develop can be used for many more projects in the future which will all help to increase the yield, quality and disease resistance of this new crop.