Novel pre-breeding germplasm for commercial development of sustainable traits in crops

农业需要一种更快的方法来开发具有新特性的作物，以满足不断变化的商业、社会经济和环境需求。50多年来，农业依赖于大量使用化学品和化肥，产量在这种制度下稳步增长。然而，由于环境原因，越来越多的农用化学品被撤回，产量也趋于稳定。新的病原体种类正在进化，它们可以对农作物造成毁灭性的影响，并且可以在很短的时间内传播到全球。学术界和工业界的农业研究人员越来越多地转向从事“预育种”活动的遗传改良网络（GINs），以便在这个不断变化的世界中为可持续农业找到重要的新性状。预育种是利用野生近缘种和其他未改良种质的新性状的必要的第一步。然而，一个主要的挑战是将转基因作物的基础研究转化为商业现实，以在短时间内生产出具有改良性状的作物品种。我们的项目开发了一种新的商业策略，以甘蓝型油菜的抗病性为模型，加速性状在作物中的应用。甘蓝型油菜是世界上最重要的温带油籽作物，产量接近7000万吨，是英国继小麦和大麦之后的第三重要作物。疾病是OSR生产的主要限制因素，气候变化和出于环境原因限制使用农用化学品加剧了这一问题。自2012年以来，由芸苔Pyrenopeziza brassicae引起的轻叶斑病（LLS）已成为英国最具破坏性的疾病。2016年，英国法律服务公司的经济损失超过2亿英镑，2012年至2018年期间一直超过8000万英镑。没有已知的对LLS的抗性(R)基因，并且病原体已经形成了多种杀菌剂不敏感，包括对唑类（在英国和可能在欧洲使用的最常用的杀菌剂）的耐受性。该项目将赫特福德大学的LLS病理学专业知识与约翰英纳斯中心的OSR基因组技术相结合。我们项目的技术目标是提高对LLS的抵抗力。我们将对在早期研究中鉴定出具有较好LLS抗性的OSR品种进行评估，并将其与当前推荐列表中的优秀品种进行比较。我们将评估筛选是否可以作为一项服务提供给养殖业，或通过咨询作为培训模块转移。我们还将加强在早期研究中发现的一个新的易感基因的知识产权地位。我们将使用非转基因和转基因方法来修饰基因，以测试这是否会增加对LLS的抗性。这两种方法都提供了为易感基因提供专利保护的机会。除了技术目标之外，我们还将制定一项商业计划，确定一项商业上可行的战略，以将可持续农业的重要新性状引入作物。该商业计划将包括加强作物相关研究成果的知识产权地位的战略，以及让研究人员通过公私伙伴关系更有效地与产业界合作的战略。虽然我们的研究重点是OSR，但该商业计划也将适用于其他作物物种的性状

Agriculture needs a much faster way of developing crops with new traits to meet changing commercial, socio-economic and environmental needs. For over 50 years, agriculture has relied on intensive application of chemicals and fertilizers, and yields have grown steadily under this regime. Increasingly, however, agrochemicals are being withdrawn for environmental reasons, and yields are plateauing. New races of pathogens are evolving that can have devastating effects on crops, and they can spread round the globe in a short period of time. Agricultural researchers in academia and industry are increasingly turning to Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) undertaking 'pre-breeding' activities to find important new traits for sustainable agriculture in this changing world. Pre-breeding is a necessary first step in harnessing novel traits from wild relatives and other unimproved germplasm. However, a major challenge is to translate basic research arising from GINs into commercial reality to produce crop cultivars with improved traits in short timescales. Our project develops a new business strategy to accelerate deployment of traits into crops using disease resistance in Brassica napus as a model.Brassica napus (oilseed rape, OSR) is the most important temperate oilseed crop in the world with a production of close to 70 million metric tonnes and is the third most important crop in the UK after wheat and barley. Diseases are a major limitation for production of OSR, a problem exacerbated by climate change and restrictions on the use of agrochemicals for environmental reasons. Light leaf spot (LLS), caused by Pyrenopeziza brassicae, has become the most damaging disease in the UK since 2012. Economic losses to LLS in the UK reached over £200M in 2016 and have been consistently over £80M between 2012 and 2018. There are no known resistance (R) genes to LLS, and the pathogen has developed multiple fungicide insensitivities including tolerance to azoles, the most commonly-used fungicide class used in the UK and probably Europe. The project combines the expertise in LLS pathology at the University of Hertfordshire with OSR genomic technology at the John Innes Centre. The technical aim of our project is to develop improved resistance to LLS. We will evaluate OSR accessions with promising LLS resistance identified in an earlier study and benchmark them them with elite cultivars on the current Recommended List. We will evaluate whether screening could be performed as a service to the breeding industry or transferred through consultancy as a training module. We will also strengthen the IP position of a novel susceptibility gene identified in an earlier study. We will modify the gene using both a non-GM and GM approaches to test whether this increases resistance to LLS. Both approaches provide the opportunity to provide patent protection for the susceptibility gene. In addition to the technical aims, we will also develop a business plan defining a commercially viable strategy for introduction of important new traits for sustainable agriculture into crops. The business plan will include strategies for strengthening the Intellectual Property position of results from crop-related research and for researchers to work more effectively with industry through public/private partnerships. Whist the focus of our research is on OSR, the business plan will also be applicable to traits from other crop species