Browsing by Person "Gottwald, Marlen"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Phenotypic and molecular analyses of grain and biomass productivity under irrigated and rainfed conditions in hybrid rye
(2014) Gottwald, Marlen; Miedaner, Thomas
Rye (Secale cereale L.) is a small grain cereal used for bread making, livestock feeding and as renewable energy source. These types of usages are leading to different breeding goals. Rye growing regions are affected by climate change and consequently by drought. Germany is touched by rainless periods in spring and early summer in the last years. Again, in spring 2012 farmers in Brandenburg and Lower Saxony were affected by drought periods. Yield losses in those regions, especially in combination with sandy soils are expected. Therefore much attention is paid for breeding of drought resistant germplasm. Briefly, our objectives of this study were to (1) estimate the biomass and biogas potential of different plant materials, their quantitative genetic parameters and biogas-related traits, (2) analyze two recombinant inbred lines and differences in their yield potential between irrigated and rainfed regime, as well as the relative efficiency for indirect selection for drought resistance in irrigated regime, and (3) investigate the phenotypic performance for ten agronomic and quality traits across multiple environments and estimated the number and effects underlying QTL. For the biomass-/ biogas analyses a wide range of plant material was analysed. Germplasm resources, full-sib families selected for grain and forage use were tested for their per se and testcross performance and experimental hybrids selected for grain use and population cultivars selected for grain and forage use were analyzed. Dry matter yields varying across environments from 106 to 177 dt/ha for per se and testcross performance, respectively. For testcross performance, germplasm resources showed similar values to forage rye. The later the maturity stage, the more dry matter yield on the whole plant level was achieved. Estimates of genotypic variances for biomass yield were significant for all rye materials, whereas the variances per se and for testcrosses were for germplasm resources exorbitant higher than for forage and grain rye. Typical cumulative methane production curves were obtained for the whole plant material from the Hohenheim biogas yield test. Methane yield showed large differences between second and third harvest date for individual plant fractions. Differences between genotypes were not substantial for methane yield although significant in some instances. At EC77/83 hybrids and forage rye reached similar methane yield of about 5000 m3/ha. A high correlation between dry matter yield and methane yield was observed (r=0.95). Concerning high cost and time consuming analysis of biogas tests, for breeders the main breeding goal should be maximum dry matter yield. Direct selection on dry matter yield should indirect improve methane yield. Two biparental populations were used for the analysis of drought tolerance. The analysis was performed in duplicate. Both populations were grown under irrigated and rainfed regimes. Striking less rainfall compared to long-term precipitation occurred between April and July, during critical phases of plant development. Grain yield reduction between irrigated and non-irrigated regime ranged from 2% to 29.6% for population A and 2% to 40% for population B, whereas differences between both regimes were significant (P<0.05) for five and four environments, respectively. Genotypic variances of grain yield were significant in all instances, whereas genotype by irrigation interaction variance between both regimes being significant only in three and four environments for population A and B, respectively. Analysis across those environments revealed significant difference for genotype by irrigation interaction variance and the three-way interaction variance in both populations. Heritability estimates were higher for the irrigated than for the rainfed regime. High interaction variance with environment and no clustering of the two regimes in a multi-dimensional analysis were found. This illustrates the different soil and whether conditions between locations and additionally every location suffered from a different drought stress. The correlation between both regimes was significant but moderate, but genotypic coefficients considerably higher (Pop-A: 0.86, Pop-B: 0.84), which could be substantiated that testcrosses differed not substantially in drought-resistance. Indirect selection for drought in the irrigated regime was predicted to be equally or more efficient than direct selection in the non-irrigated regime. Phenotypic and genotypic analysis was done across ten environments for both biparental populations for the general improvement of agronomic and quality traits in rye. Population A were genotyped with a Rye5K SNP array and for population B DArT genotyping was done with a 3K rye array. Additionally both populations were genotyped with about 150 SSRs. The genetic linkage maps comprised 1,819 and 1,265 markers for population A and B, respectively and were used for the QTL analysis for ten agronomic and quality traits. Phenotyping revealed large genetic variation for ten agronomic and quality traits. Intensive phenotyping at up to ten environments led to moderate to high heritabilities. Across environments explained genotypic variance of the individual QTL ranged from 5 to 55%. For 1000-kernel weight, test weight, falling number, and starch content, several QTL with high effects and a frequency of recovery of about 90% were identified in both population. Rye suffered from drought stress in the last decade. Focusing on general improvement of rye regarding yield and quality, as well as improving rye regarding drought-resistance is important. Future research should be done in fine mapping and validation of the detected QTLs, for exploiting their potential in marker assisted breeding.