Barley

Accelerated Malting Barley Breeding

Daniel Sweeney, Travis Rooney, Karl Kunze, Siim Sepp

New York has over 400 craft breweries, many of which are classified as farm breweries. Under the New York Farm Brewery Bill, licenses for farm breweries can be attained if brewers use a quota of New York grown grain in their beer. Production of high quality malting barley is challenging in New York due to the wet, humid growing season. We are implementing genomic selection to accelerate variety development for spring two-row malting barley that is adapted to wet conditions and produces consistently high quality malt across the diverse environments of New York. We are also trying to better understand the connection between pre-harvest sprouting and malting quality to breed barley that minimizes grower risk in wet summers and produces great malt for great beer.

Funding: This project is funded by New York Agriculture and Markets, The American Malting Barley Association,and the Brewers Association

Wheat

Dissecting Yield

Ellie Taagen, Elizabeth De Meyer, Tim Mulderrig

The kernel weight and shape of wheat are valued traits due to their association with yield and milling quality. The large number of variants with small individual effects contributing to kernel weight and yield have posed challenges for characterizing the genetic control of these traits.  Recent advancement of the wheat reference genome assembly and tools for identifying DNA polymorphisms and gene editing can facilitate the identification of genes underlying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for yield components.  Using the W7984 × Opata spring wheat doubled haploid and recombinant inbred line mapping populations we have identified multiple QTL that contribute to grain weight and shape.  From segregating lines, we developed heterogeneous inbred families in order to fine-map the causal loci for QTL on chromosomes 2DS and 5AL.  The continued progress and results of fine mapping will lay a strong foundation to validate and characterize candidate grain morphology genes using mutation populations and/or gene editing approaches.

Funding: This project is funded by the Wheat CAP grant from the USDA-NIFA (no. 2017-67007-25939, 2022-68013-36439)

Preharvest Sprouting Tolerance

Siim Sepp

If rainy conditions occur after wheat maturity, a seed could begin to germinate causing preharvest sprouting (PHS). Consequently, the quality of the wheat flour will be reduced as a result of broken down starch granules from that initial germination process. To prevent significant losses due to PHS, the Cornell Small Grains group aims to release PHS tolerant varieties and identify tolerant QTL/genes. This project specifically focuses on genome-wide associations to identify sources of tolerance in the Northeast germplasm along with genomic selection of PHS to improve breeding efforts. The effort to improve PHS tolerance will also be supplemented by the identification of the 2B dormancy gene from Cayuga through fine-mapping and candidate gene confirmation using CRISPR/Cas9.

Funding: This project is funded by Hatch 149-950

US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI)

Jason Schiller and David Benscher

The aim of the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative(USWBSI) is to improve Fusarium Head Blight(FHB) tolerance among wheat and barley varieties.  This is a collaborative project involving programs from all across the US.  There are several sub-projects that our lab is focused on.  The first is evaluating lines from three cycles of Genomic Selection for FHB to assess progress using this type of breeding strategy.  The second project is evaluating lines from Cooperative and Cornell breeding yield trials to help make variety recommendations.  The third project aims to rate Dominant Male Sterile derived populations for disease.  Elite lines from the USWBSI trials were randomly mated with lines containing dominant male sterility to create a recurrent selection population that has been selected for several years for low FHB ratings.  More information about the project. 

Funding: USWBSI grant#59-0206-8-196 Development of FHB resistant wheat and barley varieties for the Northeastern US.

Value Added Grains for Local and Regional Food Systems

Miranda Penney

Small grains provide multiple benefits to organic farms but are often underutilized because of their relatively low economic value. Organic growers need new crops, markets, and rotation options. This project will assist in meeting these needs by developing, testing, and distributing high quality and high-value food grain varieties and nutritional information. The long-term goals of this project are to add value in multiple ways to specialty food grain crops to substantially increase their production and enhance the biodiversity and sustainability of organic farms. The project will implement a multipronged approach to outreach including 1) facilitating “active” events in which participants learn by doing, and 2) providing stakeholders with printed and online information resources and webinars through eOrganic and our project partners’ websites and social media. In addition to providing multiple ecological benefits, the inclusion of value-added wheat varieties and other specialty small grains in organic crop rotations, contributes to the profitability of off-farm processors, bakers, and other grain/flour end users. There is societal benefit to regionally grown grains since local production and consumption increases direct support for local farmers by providing consumers a way to engage with grain production in their area.