Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 11210 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta Also, Larsen is using Kernza-type wheatgrass lines in his wheat x wheatgrass crossbreeding work. “If you have an improved source of perennial habit with a nicer plant type, better grain yield and so on, and you cross it with wheat, then theoretically you should get a better perennial wheat type.” In a new project, Larsen is crossing wheat and Kernza lines to achieve the dual goals of bringing robust sources of stripe rust resistance and Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance into annual wheat, and providing a larger germplasm base for his perennial wheat breeding work. “The project is trying to make the best use of everything we’re doing. We’re making all these crosses, which are lots of work. So we want to make sure the germplasm is used by people who need it,” he explains. “Typically, instead of perhaps 50 seeds or 30 seeds per cross, you’ll get one or two or three seeds [from crossing wheat and wheatgrass]. Then we do a colchicine seed treatment [a way to more quickly fix the genetics of a breeding line by doubling half the usual set of chromosomes]. You lose some lines because it’s a pretty harsh process. And the seed set is typically poor; you might get two or three seeds per plant.” Larsen has obtained Kernza lines from The Land Institute and intermediate wheatgrass lines from the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture (USDA) gene bank. He is evaluating the lines in the field for stripe rust resistance, and Cattani is testing them for FHB resistance. The project team is crossing resistant and susceptible wheatgrass lines with resistant and susceptible spring wheat and winter wheat lines. They are also mapping the wheat- grass resistance genes so they can develop molecular markers to track those genes in the offspring from the crosses. Some of the progeny from the wheat x wheatgrass crosses will be backcrossed repeatedly with wheat. The idea is to produce wheat lines with just a sliver of wheatgrass genetic material that contains the disease resistance genes and not much more. The resulting wheat lines will be provided to Canadian annual wheat breeders. The Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) and Alberta Innovates are funding this project. “While perennial wheat has a ways to go before Alberta producers will be able to incorporate it into their rotations, if this project is successful, there are several benefits that producers can look forward to,” explains Lauren Comin, research manager at AWC. “First is the introduction of new genetics and the possibility of improved resistance to abiotic and biotic stress. This could have implications for traditional spring wheat and winter wheat as well. There is also a sustainability component to this project: wheat- grass may provide genetics that reduce the amount of inputs required. Achieving a perennial crop means that producers aren’t planting every year. They are saving money they may spend on seed, time they spend on seeding and other inputs involved in the seeding process. Perennial cereals also have benefits ecologi- cally including large developed root systems, constant ground cover and reduced disturbance of soils.” She notes, “While producers have always tried to work towards increased sustainability because it has practical benefits for their operations, there is new off-farm pressure for produc- tion to be more and more sustainable from an environmental standpoint. Perennial wheat, given adequate quality, is just one more tool in a producer’s sustainability toolbox.” A Novel Approach: Gene Editing for Perennial Habit Larsen is also exploring a third, more theoretical approach to developing perennial wheat. It is based on the intriguing hypoth- esis that the difference between an annual habit and a perennial habit might be a matter of only a few genes. Noticeably different spikes: wheat (bottom), wheat x wheatgrass crosses (next 6 spikes), Kernza (second from the top) and intermediate wheatgrass (top). AAC GATEWAY Winter Wheat New AAC GATEWAY Consistent Yields Best Lodging Less Fusarium High Protein Shorter Medium Maturity “Working Hard to Earn Your Trust”