Location: Cereal Crops Research
Project Number: 3060-22000-051-002-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2021
End Date: Feb 1, 2024
Objective:
1) Collect isolates of (but not limited to) Spot Blotch, Bacterial Leaf Streak, Stem Rust, and Net Blotch.
2) Characterize isolates of (but not limited to) Spot Blotch, Bacterial Leaf Streak, Stem Rust, and Net Blotch for Virulence on Barley and Genotype Isolates.
3) Survey barley varieties for resistance against (but not limited to) Spot Blotch, Bacterial Leaf Streak, Stem Rust, and Net Blotch.
4) Further development of greenhouse/ growth chamber inoculation and screening of barley lines for bacterial leaf streak or other pathogens.
5) Screening barley germplasm for durable resistance against bacterial leaf streak or other pathogens.
6) Time point RNA-sequencing experiment to identify possible barley susceptibility genes to bacterial leaf streak or other pathogens.
Approach:
Barley pests cause annual 5 to 15% yield reductions, resulting in losses of $36 to $118 Million a year nationwide to growers. This NACA will provide ARS and North Dakota State University scientists the capability of researching important pathogens of barley to the State of North Dakota. This includes the following pathogens, but are not limited to, Spot Blotch caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana; Bacterial Leaf streak (BLS) on barley is caused by Xanthomonas translucens pv. translucens; Net blotch which occurs in two forms, net form of net blotch (NFNB) in barley caused by Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt) and spot form net blotch caused by Pyrenophora teres f. maculate (Ptm); and Stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. These pathogens cause the most damage to barley in the region and are the target for investigation under this grant. The approach involves graduate students collecting important isolates or screening isolates already collected for virulence and pathogenicity on important barley cultivars in the state of North Dakota and further developing screening assays for BLS or other pathogens in the greenhouse and screening barley germplasm for durable resistance. . Designing markers or using already designed markers to genotype the isolates will be accomplished in coordination with university and USDA collaborators. Resistance will be surveyed in different population of barley relating to the specific pathogen to develop and characterize a better understanding of molecular resistance of barley to the pathogens mentioned above. Gaining an understanding of the virulence mechanism will also be accomplished by comparing the genotypic and phenotypic pathology of the isolates tested.
