OREGIN Diversity Demonstration Trials (2009-2011)

Background Information

2009/2010 Trials (Year 1)

2010/2011 Trial (Year 2)

The Winter 2009/2010 Trial was a great success and provided an opportunity to observe and assess Brassica diversity.
More than 100 people visited, more than 60 traits were assessed and more than 2000 images were captured!
Data are currently being collated and curated into CropStoreDB.

The Winter/Spring 2010/2011 Trial, with 205 lines, is growing well and we look forward to welcoming anyone who wishes to view, score and/or sample from these plots.

Please contact Jackie Barker at Rothamsted Research.

Presentations

Background

The OREGIN project has assembled key genetic resources to enable researchers and breeders to explore the relevant gene-pool for enhanced traits to incorporate into breeding programmes. This includes establishing Diversity Fixed Foundation Sets for B. napus (BnaDFFS

). The set of founder lines within the BnaDFFS was compiled to represent a structured sampling of the genetic diversity across the global B. napus genepool, and to encompass winter and spring OSR, swedes, and fodder, forage and salad kales. UK oilseed breeders are currently assisting with completing single-seed descent (SSD) fixation, and bulking of fixed lines.

At present there is little baseline information available that describes the plant performance and properties of the fixed lines. As a result OREGIN is establishing small-scale demonstration trials and trait assessments for the BnaDFFS. Due to limited resources, the initial focus will be on assessment (not detailed sampling in depth) of a limited number of component traits affecting yield, harvest index and nitrogen utilisation efficiency (NUE), and their impact on seed composition. Component traits will include mineral uptake, assessment of crop establishment and architecture and seed composition.

These demonstration field trials are being carried out at Rothamsted Research over two seasons (2009/10; 2010/11) on two levels of nitrogen input. This will provide preliminary information from direct measurements on field grown plants. In addition, representative samples of plant tissue and seed will be collected from the experimental plots for archiving. These will be available for subsequent off-site analysis such as isotope discrimination, e.g. to inform studies on water use efficiency (WUE). Soil samples could also be collected in conjunction with other funded projects. The provision of a common set of material and baseline data will facilitate determination of inter-relationships between different trait components across the genepool, and should provide sufficient information to enable design of more focused projects based on particular subsets of BnaDFFS lines, facilitating pre-breeding of additional traits.

Access

A key feature of the OREGIN diversity demonstration trials is that they are available for use by the research community. We strongly encourage anyone who wishes to view, score or sample from the plots, to discuss this with representatives of the OREGIN Management Committee, and in particular with Jackie Barker or Graham King at Rothamsted. We are happy to work with individual research teams to help provide access to the material and associated trait score datasets.

Design

For the 2009/2010 Trials, lines were selected from the BnaDFFS based upon seed availability and genetic status. Parental genotypes for the OREGIN new mapping populations (current OREGIN project) and two outliers from a hydroponic germplasm screen for variation in nitrogen uptake (previous OREGIN project; report available here), were included regardless of their genetic status, and if seed were available.

For the 2010/2011 Trial, all BnaDFFS lines where sufficient seed was available, regardless of genetic status were included and BOTH winter and spring croptypes were drilled September 2010.
Randomised complete block designs were used, with restricted blocking of the spring crop types in the 2010/2011 Trial.

Trait scores and sampling

A record of the basic properties of each accession within the BnaDFFS will help to classify the different subsets, and interpret the trait variation in the context of the phenology of the plants grown under comparative field conditions. A limited range of sampling, trait scores and measurements were carried out by the OREGIN project team. These included:

Simple photographic records
Sampling and archive of early leaf tissue (dried) - youngest fully expanded leaf, bulked from 10 plants (RRES/WHRI)
Soil N measurements (small-scale) prior to spring N application (RRES)
Sampling and archive of canopy leaf (dried) - youngest non-cauline leaf from primary inflorescence, bulked from 10 plants (RRES/WHRI)
Mineral content (including N and P) of the harvested, dried leaf tissue (WHRI)
Sampling of open pollinated seed - NIRS determination of oil, protein, glucosinolate content (RRES)
Harvesting bagged seed for bulking (RRES/WHRI)
Canopy architecture contributing to harvest index components (JIC)

Data associated with these scores will be collated and curated within the CropStoreDB data management pipeline, and made available via this website. Samples will be archived so that they are available for later use should the need arise.