1. GCP Wheat meeting:
a summary
Hyderabad, September 21-22, 2011

2. GCP Wheat projects
G3008.01 Generating new wheat germpalsm with
enhanced drought/heat tolerance using AB genome
genetic diversity
G3008.08 Breeder-friendly high throughput phenotyping
tools to select for adaptive traits in drought environments
G7010.02.01: Wheat breeding and selection strategies to
combine and validate QTLs for WUE and heat tolerance
in China
G7010.02.02: Wheat breeding and selection strategies to
combine and validate QTLs for WUE and heat tolerance
in India
G7009.01 Natural variation in the transcritional regulation
of drought responses in wheat

3. G3008.08 Breeder-friendly high throughput
phenotyping tools to select for adaptive traits
in drought environments
Aims to identify physiological traits or trait values for
defined drought stresses
• phenotyping: ICARDA & CSIRO Australia
• 20 – 25 trials of 200 genotypes x 2 years x 72 traits
(all characterized with markers, SSRs & DArTs)
Opportunity
• Phenotyping manual has been developed – the Wheat
CI also have a manual (circulate & compare)
• Learn from this experience in wider Wheat CI project

4. G3008.01 Generating new wheat germplasm with
enhanced drought/heat tolerance using AB genome
genetic diversity
Materials developed:
• 1000 DHs (emmer based hexaploids)
• 1000’s of F3 – F6 (by end of the project in 2012)
• Approx 300 primaries based on 108 emmers x 3 A.
tauschii
How to phenotype close to 3,000 lines?
Opportunity
• Wheat CI in India can test at key phenotyping sites
• ICARDA to test DH lines & primaries
• CSIRO (Fernanda Dreccer) DH
• PBI Sydney Uni to test DH & primaries

5. Wheat Challenge Initiative: Molecular breeding and selection
strategies to combine and validate QTLs for improving WUE
and heat tolerance of wheat in India & China
India:
Vinod Prabhu (coordinator) – IARI (Delhi)
Virinder Singh Sohu – PAU (Ludhiana)
PC Mishra - J.N.K.V.V.(Powarkheda)
SC Misra – Agharkar Research Institute, (Pune)
NK Singh – NRCPB (Delhi)
China:
Ruilian Jing (coordinator) – CAAS (Beijing)
Xiumin Chen - Hebei Academy of Agricultural Sciences (HAAS)
Meirong Sun - Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS)
Zhenlu Wu - Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (XAAS)

6. Activities
1. Evaluation of CIMMYT’s international drought
tolerance reference set (200 + lines) at key
locations. Validate known QTLs in each target
environment
2. MABC - transfer known international QTLs and
locally identified QTLs into elite local
germplasm
3. Use MARS to develop elite drought & heat
tolerant materials

7. Reference set evaluation
India:
Reference set (from CIMMYT) of 200 lines
tested at 4 sites, 2 reps and series of
physiological traits & yield measured
A subset identified for more intensive
characterization in 2011/12 and for use as
donors for backcrossing

8. Reference set evaluation
China:
The reference set of 145 lines plus local
cultivars has been tested 2010/11 at 7 sites.
Observation: most sites single row plots,
difficulty of planting date (winter or spring),
large size of set

9. Plans
Develop a country subset for 2011/12 + best
adapted lines at each site

10. Known QTL introgression
India:
15 sources from the reference set crossed to 4
elite Indian backgrounds. Now at BC1F2 (the
BC1F1 was sown over summer).
A local population C306/WH157 is now in the
second year of phenotyping

11. Known QTL introgression
China
11 BC3F4 and BC3F5 populations evaluated in
Beijing, Shanxi and Gansu Provinces in 2010/11
to validate target QTLs detected in the DH
population (Hanxuan 10 × Lumai 14) and other
genetic populations
17 Chinese elite cultivars crossed key reference
set materials. A total of 1224 crosses have been
made. Populations at F2, F3, and BC1F1

12. Development of MARS materials
India:
Planning 18 crosses x 2 reps x 4 sites in
2011/12
Reduce to 6 key crosses (>200
progeny/cross) and test in larger
plots/more reps to establish best possible
phenotype

13. Development of MARS materials
China:
Each partner has developed two populations:
CAAS – F2:3 (260 lines) & F2
Yunchen – F3:5 (600 lines) & F2:3 (500 lines)
Hebei – 2 x F2:3 populations (of 300 lines each)
Changzhi – 2 x F2:3 populations (of 300 lines each)
Xinjiang – F2:4 (1000 lines) & F2:3 (300 lines)
Phenotyping in 2011/12: possible reduction to 6 crosses

14. Germplasm sharing among
partners
Need an umbrella document from the GCP
describing the nature of wheat CI partnership
- Listing participant organizations and staff
- List germplasm to be shared
- Approved by Dr Swapan Datta
- Develop project specific MTA that covers all
partners
- Chinese position?

15. Data sharing
• Each group to provide a list of data sets in 2 weeks with
data to follow
• Data managers have been appointed in each project
(India/China/Australia) to manage data quality & upload
into GCP wheat central
• Need to agree on a Wheat CI data dictionary to
standardize trait capture (RT to send the existing Indo-
Australia ICIS data dictionary to all partners)
• Indo-Australian use case study database needs to be
made public and posted on GCP wheat central at
CIMMYT (RT to discuss with partners in February)

16. Data managers presentations
Tariq Chattha – PBI pedigree & phenotypic data loaded
some molecular data
- time to produce germplasm lists needs to reduce
- need more user friendly molecular data upload
- need data query tools
Manoj Singh (NRCPB) – highly successful user case: Indo-
Australia wheat program
- local databases at all nodes and a central data base
set up and populated
- data sharing led to conversion of central data base
from ms Access to MySQL to increase capacity

17. • Great demonstration of field book and the
use of the Samsung 10.1 Galaxy tablet for
recording field data.
• RT to write a letter to ICAR requesting this
for Wheat CI in India for local purchase

18. Fingerprinting
• SNP validation set (94 lines expanded from 72 initially
identified)
• 125 Indian lines, 125 Chinese plus 30 globally important
genotypes (hopefully performing well in India/China) to be
genotyped with the same SNPs
• RT to facilitate development of the lists with Ruilian & Vinod
Other genotyping data (pedigrees/markers used)
Help with genotype selection for testing/assembly of new
subsets for genotyping
• Vinod/Ruilian to coordinate nationally
• Indo/Australian ACIAR data available
• CIMMYT & ICARDA to provide relevant sets

19. Ontology
• The Wheat group to provide current trait
dictionary
• Good value seen by all in the new format
Optimas demo
• Value of the tool recognized
• A need to practice with local data

20. Capacity building
• Level 1 training (basic ICIS use & data
management): not needed in India but required
in China
• Level 2 training (tool use, managing genotyping
data, molecular analysis) needed by India
• Training the trainers is suggested
• In county training essential to ensure relevant
people can attend

21. Communities of Practice
Confusion about what this CoP
• Already have global CoPs in wheat (eg
Graingenes)
• Need lower level/less threatening CoP
• Suggest starting small with a GCP wheat CoP
and working upwards
- post data & information on website
- post comments/queries
- monthly email up-date of contents to
remind people to look
- needs a person to coordinate