DIP B 4.3 Utilization of wild cereal germplasm

Utilization of wild cereal germplasm from the Israeli Center of Diversity for Wheat and Barley Improvement: Mapping, cloning and transformation of disease and drought resistance genes into elite cultivars
Principal Investigators:


Prof. Eviatar Nevo, Institute of Evolution, Haifa University Israel

Dr. Marion Röder, Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany


Project duration: 01.01.2000 - 31.12.2004

Web page: http://research.haifa.ac.il/~evolut/

 

Executive summary:

The overall aim of our research program was to reveal the adaptive molecular-genetic basis of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in wild progenitors of wheat and barley, the major Old World crops domesticated in the Middle East. The objectives were to:


(I) Study the genomic organization and diversity of disease resistance genes in Triticum dicoccoides, and


(II) Reveal the genetic basis of unique resistance of desert ecotypes of Hordeum spontaneum to water stress.


Most of the objectives of part I of the project were completed during the four years of the project, while in the fifth year we continue the work towards physical mapping and cloning of the yellow rust resistance genes Yr15 and YrH52 derived from wild emmer wheat and located within the 1S0.8 gene cluster on chromosome 1BS. The results of part II of the study include integration of genomics, genetics, and physiology that promises to highlight and transform drought resistance genes of wild barley to improve cereal cultivars:

  • Elucidating major physiological mechanisms underlying drought resistance;
  • Identification of known candidate and novel genes that are associated with drought resistance;
  • Identification of genomic regions that are associated with drought tolerance by QTL analysis;
  • Cloning, characterizing, and transforming drought of drought resistance genes (dehydrin and ABA pathway genes); and
  • Massive microarray analysis of drought resistance in wild barley including 15,000 genes subdivided to mesic, semimesic, and xeric gene clusters.


Our results will establish a basis for application of modern genomic tools for efficient utilization of the rich gene pool of Israeli populations of wild cereals for cereal improvement for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, not only in wheat and barley, but also in other Triticeae. 

 

wild emmer wheat Triticum dicoccoides 

wild barley hordeum spontaneum

 

Additional project information:

POSTER of wild barley presented in IBGS June 11, 2004
 
Characterization and mapping of a wild barley EIBI1 mutation of a gene essential for leaf water conservation