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

耕地：高价值特种油籽作物“Ahiflower”中新出现的疾病威胁

• 批准号: BB/X012026/1
• 负责人: Philip Howell
• 金额: $ 6.38万
• 依托单位: National Institute of Agricultural Botany
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FX012026%2F1
• 关键词: Arable; Emerging; disease; threats; value

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.

NIAB和Natures Crops International已经合作了15年以上，将Buglossoides arvensis植物从一种可耕种的杂草开发成一种专门的油料作物（商品名：Ahiflower），这种作物只在英国种植。Ahiflower是最丰富的植物来源的结合欧米茄脂肪酸，健康的化合物也发现在油性鱼类。这种作物是一种对素食友好的、可持续的欧米茄来源：据估计，一英亩的Ahiflower可以产出多达32万加仑的富含欧米茄的油，从而减轻了对受威胁的海洋生态系统的压力。全球对Ahiflower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饮食配方，以及化妆品和个人护理产品的新应用。该项目将建立在我们现有的合作基础上，并调查作物种植者看到的一些新出现的疾病问题。第一种是腐蹄病，它被认为是由土壤中的几种真菌组成的复合体引起的，通常与秋末和冬季作物仍然作为小型缓慢生长的植物建立时的土壤变得积水有关。腐蹄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、试验田和农作物中寻找腐蹄病的迹象，并将患病植物的土壤、根和茎样本送去实验室检测。这些测试将告诉我们哪些生物似乎是导致这种疾病的原因，这是研究如何在未来更好地控制它的重要的第一步。第二种疾病是白粉病，也是由真菌引起的。当它导致叶子变白色、干枯和过早死亡时，在Ahiflower作物的后期经常可以看到霉菌。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Ahiflower植物比农民目前种植的最好品种更能抵抗霉菌。我们将检查这些结果是否可以在田间重复，如果它们是真的，将使抗性植物和高产品种之间的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如何准确预测田间的抗霉菌性。如果可以的话，这也将有助于我们更有效地为农民培育未来的抗病品种。我们还将进行田间试验，以测试是否有任何方法可以降低这些疾病对农民作物的影响。我们将测试杀菌剂、种子处理和植物饲料的不同组合，并在不同土壤的对比地点进行种植试验。这将建立一个图片，哪些治疗方法在不同的情况下最有效。我们的试验结果将影响我们给农民的建议，使他们能够继续从作物中获得最大的收益，同时仍然保护环境。除了研究这些疾病，该项目还将开始开发一些新的育种技术，第一次在这种年轻的作物上。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追踪基因和染色体从父母到后代的遗传。我们将测试这些标记的工作，通过观察他们的遗传在幼苗之间的抗霉菌和霉菌敏感的父母，我们做了杂交。我们开发的DNA序列差异库可以用于未来更多的项目，这将有助于提高这种新作物的产量，品质和抗病性。