Publications by authors named "Allan Rattey"

Historically, end-product quality testing has been costly and required large flour samples; therefore, it was generally implemented in the late phases of variety development, imposing a huge cost on the breeding effort and effectiveness. High genetic correlations of end-product quality traits with higher throughput and nondestructive testing technologies, such as near-infrared (NIR), could enable early-stage testing and effective selection of these highly valuable traits in a multi-trait genomic prediction model. We studied the impact on prediction accuracy in genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) of adding NIR-predicted secondary traits for six end-product quality traits (crumb yellowness, water absorption, texture hardness, flour yield, grain protein, flour swelling volume).

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Oat is an annual cereal grown for forage, fodder and grain. Seasonal flowering behaviour, or phenology, is a key contributor to the success of oat as a crop. As a species, oat is a vernalization-responsive long-day plant that flowers after winter as days lengthen in spring.

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We investigated the benefit from introgression of external lines into a cereal breeding programme and strategies that accelerated introgression of the favourable alleles while minimising linkage drag using stochastic computer simulation. We simulated genomic selection for disease resistance and grain yield in two environments with a high level of genotype-by-environment interaction (G × E) for the latter trait, using genomic data of a historical barley breeding programme as the base generation. Two populations (existing and external) were created from this base population with different allele frequencies for few ( = 10) major and many ( ~ 990) minor simulated disease quantitative trait loci (QTL).

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Array-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping platforms have low genotype error and missing data rates compared to genotyping-by-sequencing technologies. However, design decisions used to create array-based SNP genotyping assays for both research and breeding applications are critical to their success. We describe a novel approach applicable to any animal or plant species for the design of cost-effective imputation-enabled SNP genotyping arrays with broad utility and demonstrate its application through the development of the Illumina Infinium Wheat Barley 40K SNP array Version 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Crop yield needs to rise to meet increasing global demand, and past successes in production have stemmed from the integration of technologies and practices rather than single innovations.
  • - Research should focus on developing synergistic farming systems that combine genetic and management techniques to enhance crop yield and overcome production limitations.
  • - In southeastern Australia’s rainfed grain systems, growers have used innovative techniques like soil water conservation and crop diversity to maintain yields despite declining rainfall, with ongoing collaboration improving genetic stability and adaptation in crops.
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Rhizosheaths comprise soil bound to roots, and in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rhizosheath size correlates with root hair length. The aims of this study were to determine the effect that a large rhizosheath has on the phosphorus (P) acquisition by wheat and to investigate the genetic control of rhizosheath size in wheat grown on acid soil.

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Genetic and physiological studies often comprise genotypes diverse in vigour, size and flowering time. This can make the phenotyping of complex traits challenging, particularly those associated with canopy development, biomass and yield, as the environment of one genotype can be influenced by a neighbouring genotype. Limited seed and space may encourage field assessment in single, spaced rows or in small, unbordered plots, whereas the convenience of a controlled environment or greenhouse makes pot studies tempting.

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Phosphorus (P) deficiency in some plant species triggers the release of organic anions such as citrate and malate from roots. These anions are widely suggested to enhance the availability of phosphate for plant uptake by mobilizing sparingly-soluble forms in the soil. Carazinho is an old wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivar from Brazil, which secretes citrate constitutively from its root apices, and here we show that it also produces relatively more biomass on soils with low P availability than two recent Australian cultivars that lack citrate efflux.

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In wheat, tillering and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSCs) in the stem are potential traits for adaptation to different environments and are of interest as targets for selective breeding. This study investigated the observation that a high stem WSC concentration (WSCc) is often related to low tillering. The proposition tested was that stem WSC accumulation is plant density dependent and could be an emergent property of tillering, whether driven by genotype or by environment.

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Stomata are the site of CO2 exchange for water in a leaf. Variation in stomatal control offers promise in genetic improvement of transpiration and photosynthetic rates to improve wheat performance. However, techniques for estimating stomatal conductance (SC) are slow, limiting potential for efficient measurement and genetic modification of this trait.

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Field evaluation of germplasm for performance under water and heat stress is challenging. Field environments are variable and unpredictable, and genotype×environment interactions are difficult to interpret if environments are not well characterised. Numerous traits, genes and quantitative trait loci have been proposed for improving performance but few have been used in variety development.

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High levels of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) provide an important source of stored assimilate for grain filling in wheat. To better understand the interaction between carbohydrate metabolism and other metabolic processes associated with the WSC trait, a genome-wide expression analysis was performed using eight field-grown lines from the high and low phenotypic tails of a wheat population segregating for WSC and the Affymetrix wheat genome array. The 259 differentially expressed probe sets could be assigned to 26 functional category bins, as defined using MapMan software.

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Grain yield and grain weight of wheat are often decreased by water-limitation in the north-eastern cropping belt of Australia. Based on knowledge that CIMMYT lines are well-adapted in this region, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population between two elite CIMMYT bread wheats (Seri M82 and Babax) was evaluated under water-limited environments. Fourteen productivity traits were evaluated in 192 progeny in up to eight trials.

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