notes on 1st Spanish Simposium on Physiology & Cereal Breeding (and II)

My notes on the second and final day of the 1st Spanish Simposium on Physiology & Cereal Breeding: http://networks.iamz.ciheam.org/cerealsnetwork/en/summaries.html

Omar Vergara-Diaz, Univ.Barcelona

He presents preliminary results on yield predictive models in water stress and control conditions based on metabolite profiles of leaves and spikes of field-grown wheat inferred from hyperspectral readings. He has recently presented this results at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.B51A1782V.

Shawn Kefauver, Univ. Barcelona & CIMMYT Africa

He talks about methods of proximal UVA phenotyping/scanning maize using complex image processing software (MosaicTool, a plugin for FIJI, see more at this presentation in Spanish: https://ruralcat.gencat.cat/documents/20181/68301/Aplicacions%20i%20reptes%20dels%20drons%20en%20el%20fenotipatge1508158117144). 

Inès Zouari, INAT, Tunisia

She presents results on drought stress impact on durum wheat. Her work involves the development and use of drought (susceptibility and tolerance) indices, which were evaluated to ascertain their value in breeding. She concludes that selection must be based on different combinations of indices depending on whether breeding targets irrigated or rainfed materials. In all cases the number of spikes and high biomass seem diagnostic as traits to be selected.

John Foulkes, University of Nottingham-UK

His keynote is about exploring genetic diversity for rooting traits and tolerance of water & N stresses in wheat. He starts by explaining what N-use efficiency (NUE) is. He mentions that deep roots help plants under drought and that is reflected in C12/13 isotope ratios. He also mentions RootNav (http://www.plant-image-analysis.org/software/rootnav) and ImageJ (https://imagej.nih.gov/ij) which they have used to study root phenotypes (crown root angle, root length density) in lab experiments, observing high heritabilities in DH populations and significant association to yield in rainfed trials. He shows nice pics of aerenchyma formation in roots under drought.

Marta Lopes, CIMMYT, Turkey

She talks about winter wheat physiology and the optimization of resilience to a changing environment in rainfed crop systems of Turkey and Iran. She shows field data on grain yield when plots are exposed to heat spells and drought before and after heading. She mentions an article recently published in FPS, but I could not find, sorry. During questions, she explains that there is a database of CIMMYT genotypes so that anyone can query and order seeds.

Mariona Martínez-Subira, Univ. Lleida

She talks about her work, in collaboration with CSIC and SemillasBatlle, synthesis of bioactive compounds (beta-glucans, arabinoxylans) in barley during grain filling in response to late abiotic stress. She reports that growth under plastics reproduces terminal heat stress and that stress affects the composition of bioactive compounds.

Rubén Vicente, presents work done at Univ. Barcelona

Talks about C and N metabolism in laminar and non-laminar photosynthetic organs under contrasting water regimes in low- and high-yielding durum wheat cultivars (Sebastian & Pelayo) grown in ITACyL, Valladolid for 3 seasons. Under water stress they observe reduction of biomass, grain yield and senescence.

Damiano Martignano, CRAG, Barcelona

His talk describes approaches for Cas9 genome editing in Sorghum, which he applies to brassinosteroids (BS) engineering. He builds on previous observations in Arabidopsis thaliana showing that increasing BS receptors increases performance under drought. He mentions also the uzu mutant in barley, which is related. His protocol takes 10-14 weeks. They are producing NILs from Iberian landraces obtained from INIA. They are building a facility to perform high-throughput phenotyping (DroughtSpotter and PHENOSPEX).

David Soba, Univ. Navarra

He talks about the effect of elevated [CO2] on durum wheat grain quality during grain filling. Concludes that yield is increased, as well as gluten proteins. In contrats, free amino acids are reduced.

Elena Prats, IAS-CSIC, Córdoba

She delivers a keynote on the physiological dysfunctions of stomata (lock-up) under fungal infection and drought which affect both resistance to disease and drought responses. She explains a series of experiments in which plants were supplied with ABA and exposed to fungi, that allowed her team to conclude that infection does affect the stomatal movements. This behavior is part of what has been called hypersensitive response, which has been described in https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/59/3/501/573771.

Francisco Ciudad- Bautista, ITACyL, Valladolid

Reports on the current incidence of fly Oscinella frit, which affects both wheat and barley, in Castilla y León, Spain. He shows fly curves and pictures of larvae and pupae in grains and explains how the symptoms can be distinguished from other diseases.

Yésica Pallavicini, ITACyL

She presents preliminary results on the use of aerial platforms and spectral indices to monitor the spread of  yellow rust in bread wheat along the growing season.