The overall objective is to do research and knowledge transfer to Ethiopia related to breeding and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in barley to enhance food security.
Status for PhDs and joint activities: Barley field-trials have been carried out in Ambo, Holetta and Kulumsa in Ethiopia to identify and purify superior lines from around 1500 food barley landraces. Two pathology PhD students have carried out disease surveys, isolated and characterized the fungal pathogens causing the diseases (Net Blotch and Barley leaf Scald), and have carried out field trials to test material for disease resistance. The two plant breeding PhD students have characterized genetic diversity of landrace material, screening of purified landraces for acidic soil tolerance and drought tolerance.
The protocol for CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing of barley cv. Golden Promise is implemented at AU-Flakkebjerg. The tissue culture protocol has been modified to increase the chance of successful transformation events of landraces as well. Several genes for editing are identified with the view to make CRISPR/Cas9 constructs to target genes for editing.
Status for outputs: Purified breeding lines of barley possessing desired traits, such as naked grains, acid soil tolerance, drought tolerance and disease resistance have been identified. Tissue culture protocols have been developed. Target genes identified. Three PhD plans have been defended. A joint review manuscript will soon be submitted for publication.
Several barley field-trials have been carried out in Ambo, Holetta and Kulumsa in Ethiopia to identify superior lines from around 1500 food barley landraces obtained from the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. The material includes both two-row and six-row spike types. Landraces possessing disease resistance and showing high yield potentials have been identified, and the process is ongoing to purify these lines for further conventional breeding and CRISPR/Cas gene editing. The work has involved personnel from the three partner institutions in Ethiopia, namely EIAR, Ambo University and Haramaya University, and has generated good synergies among the institutions, which also includes the enrollment of 4 PhD students, two at each university. At AU, tissue culture work to test for somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration from Ethiopian barley landraces has shown that plants can be regenerated successfully from some landraces. Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration is currently a prerequisite for CRISPR/Cas gene editing in barley. The in-house protocol still needs improvement to obtain a higher percentage of regenerated plants. So far, no landraces have been successfully transformed using CRISPR. The transformation protocol needs to be refined to obtain plants with gene edited traits.
