Presentation delivered by Dr. Wayne Powell (CGIAR Consortium) at Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security. March 25 - 28, 2014, Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. http://www.borlaug100.org

1. Wheat: A founder Crop of the CGIAR- Where does it
fit in the New CGIAR?
Wayne Powell
March 28, 2014

2. Challenge Led Inspired by Innovation

3. The expectations of Science & Research has
changed dramatically
•Explosion in our scientific understanding
•Opportunity to connect scientific excellence with impact
by focussing on the Grand Challenges

4. Founder Crop of Civilization

5. CIMMYT developed high yielding varieties for staple cereals
that were the engine of the Green Revolution

6. Evolution of the CGIAR

8. Increased and Sustained Investment:
Doubling of CGIAR funding in five years (2008-2013)

9. CGIAR’s research is carried out by 16 Research Programs
(CRPs), working in close collaboration with hundreds of partners
worldwide.

10. What WHEAT is aiming for
• An added value of wheat
produced equaling USD 1.3
billion by 2020.
• An additional USD 8.1 billion in
wheat produced by 2030.
• Enough wheat to feed an
additional 56 million
consumers by 2020.
• Wheat to feed an additional
397 million by 2030.
• Breaking the wheat yield
barrier by 50%.
http://wheat.org
Expected Impact

11. Comparison of maize & wheat yields
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
Source: Defra & USDA
t/ha

12. D-genome gap analysis
Bread wheat
A. tauschii
CIMMYT synthetics
• Ae tauschii falls into two clades,
• bread wheat exploits narrow sector of diversity,
• Complements CIMMYT synthetics.
Clade A
Clade B
Huw Jones

13. Selection of Diverse Tetraploid Donors
Accessions pre-selected
based on genetic
diversity at SSR loci,
cpSSR loci, GPC gene
and geographic data
found to be
representative of the
diversity in the
collection.
DArT genotyping of
90 wheat accessions
using AABB chip
Plastotype 2
dic6
27996
14078
tios
17202
14235
dic15
IG138654 C3
IG138588 G1
PI351442 B1
cortez PH
robegus
shamrockPH
Spark
PI294573 C5
ALCHEMY
Mercia
Rialto
EINSTEINHereward
Charger
Paragon PHXi19ASHBY
pi192569 A1
IG138724 D3PI278395 C1
IG138652 E2
PI136567 B2
IG127887 3AIG92851 H2
IG127865 E1
dic13
dic18
dic199
4308
dic34dic22
18083
18210
18209
16608
dic12bdic12a
dic7
dic147
dic42
dic100
dic84
dic79
dic82
dic49
dic96
dic65 dic53
dic97adic97
dic67
dic50dic98dic114
dic80
dic72
dic71dic70 dic117
dic125
dic28a
dic45 dic31
dic54
dic51
dic111
dic90
dic57
dic56
dic108adic108
dic63
dic107
18535
dic94
dic93
dic145
dic141
dic121
dic87
dic129
dic132
dic120
0.1
hex
hexaploid
T. dicoccum
T. dicoccum
T. dicoccoides

14. y = 0.8655x + 0.4495
R² = 0.7951
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
LowN-Grainyieldtha-1(85%DM)
HIgh N - Grain yield t ha-1 (85%DM)
RL Check cultivars
SHWs
Watkins lines
LSD (5%)

15. Orville Vogel,
Wash State U.
Norman Borlaug,
CIMMYT
Ed Wilhelm, NIAB/JIC:
Determine Rht-A1, Rht-B1,
and Rht-D1 genetic
variation and linked genes
Rht genes •1960s green revolution:
• Reduced lodging
• Yield increases
•Rht-B1b (Rht1) and Rht-D1b (Rht2)
characterized and mapped (Gale and
Youssefian, 1985)
•Rht genes cloned and identified as
DELLA proteins (Peng et al., 1999)

16. Rht Allelic Diversity (all sequences)
0 bp 1870 bp-1750 bp 2400 bp
Rht-A1 •16 indels (1-6 bp)
•46 SNPs
•1 indel (5 bp)
•2 SNPs•8 SNPs (3 AA changes)
Rht-B1
•6 indels (1-197 bp)
•24 SNPs
-356
160
bp
ins.
-591
197
bp
ins.
-694
16
bp
del.
•10 SNPs (5 AA changes).
•1 bp insertion
•2 indels (1-3 bp)
•4 SNPs
1 bp indel
Rht-D1
•7 indels (1-3 bp)
•17 SNPs
•2 indels (3 bp)
•2 SNPs•8 SNPs (4 AA changes)
(5’) (ORF) (3’)
Wilhelm et al. (2013) Theor Appl Gen 126:1733

17. 0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
A B D A B D A B D A B D
Overall
(~40 acc.)
2x, 4x wheat
(2-4 acc.)
Bread wheat
(37 acc.)
Bread wheat -
UK (12 acc.)
πx10-3
A01; 1
A02; 28
A03; 2
A04; 1
A05; 2
A06; 1
A07; 1 A08; 1 A09; 1
B01; 9
B02; 1
B03; 4
B04; 1
B05; 1
B06; 6B07; 2
B08; 1
B09; 5
B10; 4
B11; 2
B12; 1
B13; 1
D01; 15
D02; 5
D03; 11
D04; 4
D05; 1 D06; 1
D07; 1
Haplotype Dictionary

18. Norin 10 Ancestry
Daruma
Shiro-Daruma
Glassy Fultz
Fultz Daruma
Turkey Red
Norin 10
Brevor
Norin 10/Brevor-14
x
x
x
Historical Pedigree Marker results
Rht-B1b + Rht-D1a
Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b (minor occurrence of Rht-B1b)
not available (Shou Fultz = Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b)
Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a (Furtz Daruma = Rht-B1a + Rht-D1b)
Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a
Rht-B1b + Rht-D1b
Rht-B1a + Rht-D1a
Rht-B1b + Rht-D1b
Red = cultivars historically thought to
carry Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b
Wilhelm et al. (2013) Plant Breeding 132:539

19. • Heterozygosity
• Large genome sizes
• Repetitive regions
• Polyploidy
(homoeologues) /
paleopolyploidy
Complex plant genomes
Rice
0.4Gb
Bread wheat
17Gb
Human
3Gb
Heterozygosity, repeats and homoeologues
confound assembly tools
Barley
5.1Gb

20. A
B
D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
144x
112x
30x
88x
91x
54x
68x
76x
109x
112x
28x
46x
59x
37x
54x
77x
120x
97x
147x 85x
113x
36x
116x
154x
241x 68x
48x
158x
126x
173x
137x
80x
63x 141x
121x 195x
55x
145x
107x
220x
94x
Wheat CSS sequencing coverage

21. Breeding powered by genome
technologies-0pportunity wheat CRP
Products & Knowledge
based on principles of
sustainable
intensification
Platform for
hypothesis testing.

22. MAGIC
F2
derived
F2 & self Elite MAGIC & self
P (no recomb) 0.241 0.036
# tracts 2.6 4.7
# founders 2 3.5
The NIAB Elite MAGIC population

23. The NIAB Elite MAGIC population
28210315 complete
pedigree
@NIABTAG
#bgri2014

24. CGIAR Research Programmes
• Long term mission driven research
– Ambitious programmes tackling problems beyond the reach of
others.
• Sustainable Agricultural Intensification
– Intensification for Genetics, Agro-Ecology and Socioeconomics
– Framework for delivery built around Products (Public Goods) and
Knowledge.
• Institutional Capacity and Capability (skills) to deliver with a strong
partnership ethos.
• Strong Leadership and management commitment
• Beacon for innovation
• Recognising that Ag Research for Development is data intensive
providing opportunities for systems based approaches.

25. Global leadership for International Public
Wheat Breeding.
• Intellectual leadership for 21st Century breeding.
• Informatics and statistical/population genetics to inform, support
and re-design breeding programmes.
• Role model for the exploitation of genetic resources in breeding.
– Pro-active management of diversity in breeding programmes for
Sustainable Agricultural Intensification.
– Managing and monitoring key recombination events.
– World class phenotyping hubs.
• Partner of choice for wheat research and breeding for the
developing world.
• Forging creative new alliances with partners, funders and business
where risks and benefits are shared equitably.
• Collaboratively building capacity & capability with partners in the
Developing world.

26. The Pursuit of Ignorance
Sydney Brenner
“Which type of science to
fund is simple:
all science is problem
driven and should be
judged by the importance
of the problem and the
quality of the solutions
provided.”

28. MAGIC
An innovative approach to
dissecting the genetic
control of complex traits in
wheat
Alison Bentley, P Howell, J Cockram, G
Rose, T Barber, R Horsnell, N Gosman, P
Bansept, M Scutari, A Greenland and I
Mackay
@NIABTAG
BGRITechnicalWorkshopMarch2014#bgri2014