Is sufficient resistance to Fusarium head blight in durum wheat truly achievable?

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a widespread disease, resulting in grain yield losses and drastic grain quality deterioration because of mycotoxin contaminations, particularly in the form of deoxynivalenol (DON), the predominant and most economically important mycotoxin for wheat. F. graminearum is the main causal agent of FHB worldwide. In the last years Fusaria increase their spread and accumulate more of their related mycotoxins on durum wheat grain production at maturity. Although variation for resistance to FHB is known, no wheat variety is completely immune and durum wheat is particularly and almost universally highly susceptible to FHB. In the resistance or tolerance response to FHB, several biochemical components are involved and different quantitative traits (quantitative trait loci, QTL) capable of controlling this disease have been identified.

The meeting organised by the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding will present an overview of the most significant advances in genetic/genomic research on tolerance to FHB in durum wheat and will promote a discussion on future perspectives on their application in breeding practices to effectively improve durum wheat tolerance and reduce the accumulation of mycotoxins in grain.

On the second day, the meeting will also present an update on the most recent advances in durum wheat genomics, focusing on the ‘Svevo’ platinum quality reference genome and on the tetraploid wheat pangenome.

The meeting will start on October 17th at 9 am and will close on 18th at 2 pm.

Participants working in the field of fusarium head blight in wheat are

invited to submit an abstract of max 400 words to:

Anna Maria Mastrangelo (annamaria.mastrangelo(a)crea.gov.it)

before September 15th.

To attend this meeting pre-registration is mandatory. Please pre-register in the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfh98S-nSzfu_Q_t9GbZpKC2vwpiqaAmvmgO_beBaFFWz8Tpg/viewform?usp=sf_link

PROGRAMME DOWNLOAD HERE

5TH VIRTUAL DURUM MEETING

The Expert Working Group on DURUM WHEAT GENOMICS AND BREEDING will hold their 5th virtual meeting in May!

SAVE THE DATE on your agenda!

The title: “Challenges and Prospects of Durum Wheat of the Future”

The 5th VDM will be held on May 10th and 11th, 2023.

The Virtual Durum Meeting is a two-day webinar with 4-5 short presentations every day given in about 2 hrs followed by time for discussion. The webinar will start at 15.00h (Central European Time/Berlin Time), corresponding to morning in US and late evening in Australia.

You can find the full programme here!

Virtual Durum Meeting Hosted by the Expert Working Group on DURUM WHEAT GENOMICS AND BREEDING from the Wheat initiative

DAY 1

Wednesday, Mai 10th 2023 3pm Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

https://wheatinitiative.webex.com/wheatinitiative/j.php?MTID=mc6f04ffd535f29f8c3544e3754da8205

May 10 (between 3 and 5 pm, Central EU Time)

Chairs: Karim Ammar & Agata Gadaleta: Welcoming talk

3.00 pm Opening talk Luigi Cattivelli, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Italy

3.10pm Peter Langridge,  Wheat Initiative: The role of the Wheat Initiative

3.20pm Fei Lu,  Chinese Academy of Sciences, China & John Innes Centre, UK: Population genomics unravels the Holocene history of bread wheat and its relatives

3.40pm Liubov Govta,  University of Haifa, Israel: Durum wheat immune responses activated by WTK1 (Yr15) against stripe rust

4.00pm Shuang Zhang,  University of Vienna, Austria: Spatial distribution of proteomic architecture in wheat grains and different responses to grain filling stages

4.20pm Jad B Novi,  University of Bologna, Italy: Multienvironment phenotypic evaluation and GWAS analysis on the global durum genomic resource wheat collection for resistance to yellow rust

4.40 pm Hafssa Kabbaj,  ICARDA, Morocco: Implementation of Genomic Selection in the ICARDA durum wheat breeding program

DAY 2

Thursday Mai 11th 2023 3pm Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

https://wheatinitiative.webex.com/wheatinitiative/j.php?MTID=m0067a7e1caf132e95f910e161c23b593

May 11 (between 3 and 5 pm, Central EU Time)

Chairs: Jemanesh Haile & Anna Maria Mastrangelo

3.00 pm Opening talk

3.10pm Roberto Tuberosa,  University of Bologna, Italy: A perspective vision on the role of EWG

 3.20pm Caixia Gao,  Chinese Academy of Sciences, China: Genome-edited powdery mildew resistance in wheat without growth penalties

3.40pm Junli Zhang,  University of California, Davis, USA: Accessing natural and induced variation in the regulatory regions of the wheat genes

4.00pm Chiara Natale, CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Italy: Crop rotation, soil tillage and fertilization source affect durum wheat grain and semolina pasta traits 

4.20pm Matteo Bozzoli, DISTAL - University of Bologna, Italy: Fine mapping of Sbm2, a locus for soil-borne cereal mosaic virus (sbcmv) resistance in durum wheat

4.40pm Justin D. Faris,  United States Department of Agriculture – USDA, USA: Genetics of resistance to tan spot in durum wheat

Organised by Early Career Researchers of the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding.

Dear Virtual Durum Meeting (VDM) attendee,

To keep the EWG active and to provide an update while promoting some discussion on the latest scientific advancements on wheat genetic diversity, the EWG on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding will organize a webinar meeting part of the Virtual Durum Meeting (VDM) series.

The 4th VDM will be held on April 21 and 22, 2022.

The VDM is titled “Contribution of Tetraploid Wheat Genetic Resources to Enhance Wheat Sustainability” and will focus on the role of the tetraploid wheat genetic resources to improve the sustainability of durum and bread wheat production.

SAVE THE DATE on your agenda!

You can find the program HERE!

The Virtual Durum Meeting is a two-day webinar with 4-5 short presentations every day given in about 2 hrs followed by time for discussion. The webinar will start at 15.00h (Central European Time/Berlin Time), corresponding to morning in US and late evening in Australia.

Join from the meeting link

https://wheatinitiative.webex.com/wheatinitiative/j.php?MTID=m9726b8fa48db000d34764715d2a4bcb4

Join by meeting number

Meeting number: 2732 081 9055

Meeting password: 3bhMEaeXp34 (32463239 from video systems) 

Many thanks for your collaboration.

Best regards,

Luigi Cattivelli and Roberto Tuberosa

Virtual workshop

The Breeding Methods and Strategies Expert Working Group and the Wheat Initiative are very pleased to collaborate with Genomic Open-source Breeding informatics initiative (GOBii), http://gobiiproject.org/, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GOBii has developed open-source genotype data management and marker- and genomic-assisted breeding tools and are working on integrating these with adjacent data management systems and tools. Its mission is to enable genomic-assisted breeding in routine breeding applications in under-resourced breeding programs. In the last three years, GOBii has given 10+ training and workshops with the audience size ranging between 10 and 75 in Asia, Africa, and US. 

Through this collaboration, two workshops will be hosted in February 2021. 

Both workshops will focus on GOBii data management and data analysis in Flapjack (marker-assisted backcrossing, pedigree verification and forward breeding) developed in collaboration with the James Hutton Institute), and Galaxy (Genomic Selection). 

To see the full programme click here.

Pre-registration is required: Workshops will be open to a maximum of 15 participants each.

To participate attendees are required to:

• Download the Flapjack (which is free), at the following link:  https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/flapjack/download-flapjack/  

• Access Galaxy, at the following link: http://galaxy-demo.excellenceinbreeding.org/ 

Please, be aware that all training will be given in English. 

WORKSHOP #2

Tuesday 16th, Wednesday 17th, Thursday 18th of February, 2021 each day at:

Tokio          07:00 hrs. to 10:00 hrs.

Adelaide   08:30 hrs. to 11:30 hrs.

New York (EST) 17:00 to 20:00 hrs.

Berlin          23:00 hrs. to 02:00 hrs.

In order to give opportunity to attendees from all over the world - we are offering the workshop on two different timings: Click here for the alternative.

If you are joining us from another country, please use EST time as a guide to check your local time for the workshops.

Please, be aware that in order to complete the workshop attendees must participate all three (3) days  (no changes from workshop 1 to 2 will be allowed, as attendance will be limited).

Pre-register until January 8th, 2021: Pre-registration form

We look forward for your active participation.

WORKSHOP MATERIAL AND INFORMATION WILL BE SEND OUT TO PARTICIPANTS BEFOREHAND!

Virtual workshop

The Breeding Methods and Strategies Expert Working Group and the Wheat Initiative are very pleased to collaborate with Genomic Open-source Breeding informatics initiative (GOBii), http://gobiiproject.org/, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

GOBii has developed open-source genotype data management and marker- and genomic-assisted breeding tools and are working on integrating these with adjacent data management systems and tools. Its mission is to enable genomic-assisted breeding in routine breeding applications in under-resourced breeding programs. In the last three years, GOBii has given 10+ training and workshops with the audience size ranging between 10 and 75 in Asia, Africa, and US. 

Through this collaboration, two workshops will be hosted in February 2021. 

Both workshops will focus on GOBii data management and data analysis in Flapjack (marker-assisted backcrossing, pedigree verification and forward breeding) developed in collaboration with the James Hutton Institute), and Galaxy (Genomic Selection). 

To see the full programme click here.

Pre-registration is required: Workshops will be open to a maximum of 15 participants each.

To participate attendees are required to:

• Download the Flapjack (which is free), at the following link:  https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/flapjack/download-flapjack/  

• Access Galaxy, at the following link: http://galaxy-demo.excellenceinbreeding.org/ 

Please, be aware that all training will be given in English. 

WORKSHOP #1

Tuesday 9th Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th of February 2021, each day at:

Mexico                  8:00 hrs. to 11:00 hrs.

New York (EST)   9:00 hrs. to 12:00

UK                        14:00 hrs. to 17:00 hrs.

Berlin                   15:00 hrs. to 18:00 hrs.

New Delhi            19:30 hrs. to 22:30 hrs.

In order to give opportunity to attendees from all over the world - we are offering the workshop on two different timings: Click here for the alternative.

If you are joining us from another country, please use EST time as a guide to check your local time for the workshops.

Please, be aware that in order to complete the workshop attendees must participate all three (3) days  (no changes from workshop 1 to 2 will be allowed, as attendance will be limited).

Pre-register until January 8th, 2021: Pre-registration form

We look forward for your active participation.