U of S Researchers Aim to Fast-Track Chickpea Breeding

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Chickpeas present a significant market opportunity for Saskatchewan; however, producers face two serious production limitations: the long growing season requirement for the current chickpea varieties and the high risk of ascochyta blight, an extremely aggressive fungal disease. These are factors which crop breeding can help address, thanks in part to the contribution of the Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF) Agriculture Development Fund (ADF #20050723).

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are hoping to speed up the breeding process in order to save on variety development costs and to contribute to the molecular marker work that is currently being conducted there, according to crop scientist Monika Lulsdorf.

The research, which the U of S conducts in collaboration with colleagues in Australia, involves double-haploid technology. Normally, plant pollen contains only half the chromosomes necessary to produce a plant (single haploid), because half of the set comes from the father and the other half from the mother. Lulsdorf explains that double-haploid technology allows them to take immature pollen through a variety of steps and get it to regenerate into a plant. These plants are homozygous or "true breeding," meaning that, in a short amount of time, all the traits in which the researchers are interested can be fixed, and will not change from generation to generation.

"What is nice is that traits like resistance to ascochyta blight will be fixed in here," she says. "If you are looking for only one trait, it is fairly easy, but if you are looking for several different traits, and you have them all fixed all at the same time, that really helps in the end.”

Double-haploid technology is commonly used for canola, barley, wheat and a range of other species, but researchers are having difficulties using this technology on pulse crops, she explains.

“Pulse crops have always been more difficult than other species to work with, and there are very few people working on pulses, which makes research even more difficult," she says. "If you look at barley, there are labs all over the world working with double-haploid technology, and this synergy—financial and scientific—is helping them make more progress, faster. Whereas here, we are trying to do this mostly on our own. This is why I have called upon an Australian colleague to help."

Lulsdorf is working with Dr. Janine Croser, a research fellow from the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

"We are just trying to develop the technology at the moment," she says. "The androgenic part—the part where the pollen divides and develops into the pro-cell—we have already. We are now focusing on the development of the pro-embryo into the plant."

Lulsdorf and her colleagues hope to have one complete protocol developed this year.

“We are hoping for one cultivar, one genotype, because once we have developed one model cultivar, things become much easier. You can start playing around with it because you know what works already. Then we can start looking at other cultivars; we can improve the system; we can make it cost-efficient."

Lulsdorf believes success would open up a world of other opportunities, but, as she says, “we have to get there first.”

For more information, contact:

Monika Lulsdorf
Researcher
Crop Development Centre
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-8558