Rapid Evolution of wild barley: R-Evolve

遗传多样性是推动作物改良的燃料。然而，在我们的主要谷类作物中，通过不断杂交密切相关的高性能个体，传统的作物改良方法导致了整体多样性的急剧丧失。虽然已经存在从更多样化的野生种质或地方品种调动控制简单性状（例如抗病性）的多样性到栽培品种的策略，但是没有一种策略对于引入关键复杂性状的组分是有效的，所述关键复杂性状包括例如对生物或非生物胁迫的耐受性或产量组分。我们建议开发一种完全不同的方法来更新大麦育种基因库的多样性。我们提出的富集策略涉及部分驯化的野生基因型，将关键驯化基因和基因所需的现代西北欧洲农业在野生大麦背景。然后，我们将评估新的部分驯化的自交系和F1杂种，后者有效地使用当代精英品种的雄性不育衍生物产生。我们期望构建一个全新的、多样化的种质库，为未来的大麦育种提供参考。在这个过程中，我们将解决一个困扰遗传资源和育种界的根本问题，即如何有效地从作物改良计划中的复杂和多基因性状的多样种质中提取价值。

Genetic diversity is the fuel that drives crop improvement. However, in our major cereal crops, by continually crossing closely related high performing individuals, traditional methods of crop improvement have resulted in a drastic loss of overall diversity. While strategies for mobilising diversity controlling simple traits (e.g. disease resistance) from more diverse wild accessions or landraces into cultivars do already exist, none are effective for introducing components of key complex traits that include such as tolerance to biotic or abiotic stresses, or components of yield. We propose to develop a radically different approach to refreshing the diversity in the barley breeding genepool. Our proposed enrichment strategy involves the partial domestication of wild genotypes by incorporating key domestication genes and genes required for modern NW European agriculture in a wild barley background. We will then evaluate the new partial domesticates as both inbreds and F1 hybrids, the latter generated efficiently using a male sterile derivative of a contemporary elite cultivar. We expect to construct completely novel and diverse germplasm pools that will have value for future barley breeding. In the process we will address a fundamental issue that is vexing the genetic resources and breeding communities, i.e. how to efficiently extract value from diverse germplasm in crop improvement programs for complex and multigenic traits.