Browsing by Person "Eifler, Jakob"

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Appreciable genetic correlation between inbred lines and testcrosses facilitates breeding for resistance to Fusarium head blight in hybrid rye (Secale cereale)
(2021) Miedaner, Thomas; Rose, Marvin; Overbeck, Franziska; Koch, Silvia; Gruner, Paul; Eifler, Jakob
Hybrid breeding is based on selection of inbred lines in early generations. A sufficient genetic correlation between inbred lines and testcrosses is, however, the prerequisite for a higher selection gain in the hybrids. Therefore, we investigated this crucial parameter for Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance on 60 inbred lines each of the heterotic groups Petkus and Carsten and their corresponding crosses with two testers each at four (inbred lines) or six (testcrosses) environments (location × year combinations). FHB severity measured as percentage of infected spikelets per plot was used as resistance trait, and a correction was made by using flowering time as covariate. Variances for genotype and genotype–environment interaction were high, and the heritability was estimated .84 and .74 for the line per se performance (Petkus and Carsten) and .71 and .78 for the general combining ability (GCA). For both inbred lines and testcrosses, negative correlations with plant height were found ranging from −.20 to −.51. FHB severity was considerably higher for the inbred lines than for the testcrosses. Genetic variance was lower for testcrosses, and dominance effects of the testers and heterosis may be key factors reducing the general infection level of three‐way hybrids. The effect of the tester (i.e., difference between testers) was very small and only significant for the Carsten group. The variance for specific combining ability (SCA) was very small, too. This, and high genetic correlations between line per se and GCA (r = .82 for Petkus and r = .72 for Carsten), does allow or even favour the selection based on line per se performance. Still, in the last generation before the official trials, testcrosses should also be tested for FHB resistance and mycotoxin contents to reliably improve food and feed quality in rye.
Studying stem rust and leaf rust resistances of self-fertile rye breeding populations
(2022) Gruner, Paul; Witzke, Anne; Flath, Kerstin; Eifler, Jakob; Schmiedchen, Brigitta; Schmidt, Malthe; Gordillo, Andres; Siekmann, Dörthe; Fromme, Franz Joachim; Koch, Silvia; Piepho, Hans-Peter; Miedaner, Thomas
Stem rust (SR) and leaf rust (LR) are currently the two most important rust diseases of cultivated rye in Central Europe and resistant cultivars promise to prevent yield losses caused by those pathogens. To secure long-lasting resistance, ideally pyramided monogenic resistances and race-nonspecific resistances are applied. To find respective genes, we screened six breeding populations and one testcross population for resistance to artificially inoculated SR and naturally occurring LR in multi-environmental field trials. Five populations were genotyped with a 10K SNP marker chip and one with DArTseqTM. In total, ten SR-QTLs were found that caused a reduction of 5–17 percentage points in stem coverage with urediniospores. Four QTLs thereof were mapped to positions of already known SR QTLs. An additional gene at the distal end of chromosome 2R, Pgs3.1, that caused a reduction of 40 percentage points SR infection, was validated. One SR-QTL on chromosome 3R, QTL-SR4, was found in three populations linked with the same marker. Further QTLs at similar positions, but from different populations, were also found on chromosomes 1R, 4R, and 6R. For SR, additionally seedling tests were used to separate between adult-plant and all-stage resistances and a statistical method accounting for the ordinal-scaled seedling test data was used to map seedling resistances. However, only Pgs3.1 could be detected based on seedling test data, even though genetic variance was observed in another population, too. For LR, in three of the populations, two new large-effect loci (Pr7 and Pr8) on chromosomes 1R and 2R were mapped that caused 34 and 21 percentage points reduction in leaf area covered with urediniospores and one new QTL on chromosome 1R causing 9 percentage points reduction.