Carbon and water relations in perennial Kernza (Thinopyrum intermedium): An overview.

Perennial crops have been proposed as a more sustainable alternative to annual crops, because they have extended growing seasons, continuous ground cover, reduced nutrient leakage, and sequester more carbon in the soils than annual crops. One example is intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium), a perennial crop that has been used as a cool-season forage throughout the USA and Canada and also across its native range in Eurasia. Since the 1980's, intermediate wheatgrass has been under domestication to improve seed fertility and grain yield.

Reprint of: Morphometric approaches to promote the use of exotic germplasm for improved food security and resilience to climate change: A kura clover example.

Adaptation of agriculture to climate change and its associated ecological pressures will require new crops, novel trait combinations, and previously unknown phenotypic attributes to deploy in climate resilient cropping systems. Genebanks, a primary source of exotic germplasm for novel crops and breeding materials, need comprehensive methods to detect novel and unknown phenotypes without a priori information about the species or trait under consideration. We demonstrate how persistent homology (PH) and elliptical fourier descriptors (EFD), two morphometric techniques easily applied to image-based data, can serve this purpose by cataloging leaf morphology in the USDA NPGS kura clover collection and demarcating a leaf morphospace for the species.

The Evolution of an Invasive Plant, L. ('Johnsongrass').

From noble beginnings as a prospective forage, polyploid ('Johnsongrass') is both an invasive species and one of the world's worst agricultural weeds. Formed by x hybridization, we show to have -enriched allele composition and striking mutations in 5,957 genes that differentiate it from representatives of its progenitor species and an outgroup. The spread of may have been facilitated by introgression from closely-related cultivated sorghum near genetic loci affecting rhizome development, seed size, and levels of lutein, a photochemical protectant and abscisic acid precursor.

Transmission Genetics of a × Backcross Populations.

Despite a "ploidy barrier," interspecific crosses to wild and/or cultivated sorghum (, 2n = 2x = 20) may have aided the spread across six continents of , also exemplifying risks of "transgene escape" from crops that could make weeds more difficult to control. Genetic maps of two BCF populations derived from crosses of (sorghum) and with totals of 722 and 795 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers span 37 and 35 linkage groups, with 2-6 for each of the 10 basic sorghum chromosomes due to fragments covering different chromosomal portions or independent segregation from different homologs. Segregation distortion favored alleles on chromosomes 2 (1.

Roadmap for Accelerated Domestication of an Emerging Perennial Grain Crop.

Shifting the life cycle of grain crops from annual to perennial would usher in a new era of agriculture that is more environmentally friendly, resilient to climate change, and capable of soil carbon sequestration. Despite decades of work, transforming the annual grain crop wheat (Triticum aestivum) into a perennial has yet to be realized. Direct domestication of wild perennial grass relatives of wheat, such as Thinopyrum intermedium, is an alternative approach.

Fungal community shifts in soils with varied cover crop treatments and edaphic properties.

Cover cropping is proposed to enhance soil microbial diversity and activity, with cover crop type affecting microbial groups in different ways. We compared fungal community compositions of bulk soils differing by cover crop treatment, season, and edaphic properties in the third year of an organic, conventionally tilled rotation of corn-soybean-wheat planted with winter cover crops. We used Illumina amplicon sequencing fungal assemblages to evaluate effects of nine treatments, each replicated four times, consisting of six single winter cover crop species, a three-species mixture, a six-species mixture, and fallow.

Enhancing Crop Domestication Through Genomic Selection, a Case Study of Intermediate Wheatgrass.

Perennial grains could simultaneously provide food for humans and a host of ecosystem services, including reduced erosion, minimized nitrate leaching, and increased carbon capture. Yet most of the world's food and feed is supplied by annual grains. Efforts to domesticate intermediate wheatgrass (, IWG) as a perennial grain crop have been ongoing since the 1980's.

Comparative Analysis of Early Life Stage Traits in Annual and Perennial Crops and Their Wild Relatives.

Herbaceous perennial species are receiving increased attention for their potential to provide both edible products and ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Many legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) are of special interest due to nitrogen fixation carried out by bacteria in their roots and their production of protein-rich, edible seeds.

Community structure of soil fungi in a novel perennial crop monoculture, annual agriculture, and native prairie reconstruction.

The use of perennial crop species in agricultural systems may increase ecosystem services and sustainability. Because soil microbial communities play a major role in many processes on which ecosystem services and sustainability depend, characterization of soil community structure in novel perennial crop systems is necessary to understand potential shifts in function and crop responses. Here, we characterized soil fungal community composition at two depths (0-10 and 10-30 cm) in replicated, long-term plots containing one of three different cropping systems: a tilled three-crop rotation of annual crops, a novel perennial crop monoculture (Intermediate wheatgrass, which produces the grain Kernza®), and a native prairie reconstruction.

Digging Deeper for Agricultural Resources, the Value of Deep Rooting.

In the quest for sustainable intensification of crop production, we discuss the option of extending the root depth of crops to increase the volume of soil exploited by their root systems. We discuss the evidence that deeper rooting can be obtained by appropriate choice of crop species, by plant breeding, or crop management and its potential contributions to production and sustainable development goals. Many studies highlight the potentials of deeper rooting, but we evaluate its contributions to sustainable intensification of crop production, the causes of the limited research into deep rooting of crops, and the research priorities to fill the knowledge gaps.

Morphometric approaches to promote the use of exotic germplasm for improved food security and resilience to climate change: a kura clover example.

Adaptation of agriculture to climate change and its associated ecological pressures will require new crops, novel trait combinations, and previously unknown phenotypic attributes to deploy in climate resilient cropping systems. Genebanks, a primary source of exotic germplasm for novel crops and breeding materials, need comprehensive methods to detect novel and unknown phenotypes without a priori information about the species or trait under consideration. We demonstrate how persistent homology (PH) and elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFD), two morphometric techniques easily applied to image-based data, can serve this purpose by cataloging leaf morphology in the USDA NPGS kura clover collection and demarcating a leaf morphospace for the species.

Drought exacerbates negative consequences of high-intensity cattle grazing in a semiarid grassland.

Grasslands managed for grazing are the largest land-use category globally, with a significant proportion of these grasslands occurring in semiarid and arid regions. In such dryland systems, the effect of grazing on native plant diversity has been equivocal, some studies suggesting that grazing reduces native plant diversity, others that grazing increases or has little impact on diversity. One impediment toward generalizing grazing effects on diversity in this region is that high levels of interannual variation in precipitation may obfuscate vegetative response patterns.

Identifying Loci Conferring Resistance to Leaf and Stripe Rusts in a Spring Wheat Population () via Genome-Wide Association Mapping.

A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) for leaf rust (caused by ) resistance identified 46 resistance quantitative trait loci (QTL) in an elite spring wheat leaf rust resistance diversity panel. With the aim of characterizing the pleiotropic resistance sources to both leaf rust and stripe rust (caused by f. sp.

Transcriptome assembly and annotation of johnsongrass () rhizomes identify candidate rhizome-specific genes.

Rhizomes facilitate the wintering and vegetative propagation of many perennial grasses. (johnsongrass) is an aggressive perennial grass that relies on a robust rhizome system to persist through winters and reproduce asexually from its rootstock nodes. This study aimed to sequence and assemble expressed transcripts within the johnsongrass rhizome.

Genome mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling domestication traits of intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium).

Allohexaploid (2n = 6x = 42) intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium), abbreviated IWG, is an outcrossing perennial grass belonging to the tertiary gene pool of wheat. Perenniality would be valuable option for grain production, but attempts to introgress this complex trait from wheat-Thinopyrum hybrids have not been commercially successful. Efforts to breed IWG itself as a dual-purpose forage and grain crop have demonstrated useful progress and applications, but grain yields are significantly less than wheat.

Genetic diversity and cultivar variants in the NCGR cranberry ( Aiton) collection.

The American cranberry () is an endemic domesticated species that has become an economically important commercial fruit crop. The USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) houses the national collection, which includes representatives of historical cranberry cultivars and wild-selected germplasm. The objective of this study wasto examine the genotypes of 271 cranberry plants from 77 accessions representing 66 named cultivars using 12 simple-sequence repeats to assess clonal purity and cultivar relatedness.

Development and characterization of wheat-sea wheatgrass (Thinopyrum junceiforme) amphiploids for biotic stress resistance and abiotic stress tolerance.

Development of a complete wheat-Thinopyrum junceiforme amphiploid facilitated identification of resistance to multiple pests and abiotic stress derived from the wild species and shed new light on its genome composition. Wheat production is facing numerous challenges from biotic and abiotic stresses. Alien gene transfer has been an effective approach for wheat germplasm enhancement.

Multivariate GBLUP Improves Accuracy of Genomic Selection for Yield and Fruit Weight in Biparental Populations of Ait.

The development of high-throughput genotyping has made genome-wide association (GWAS) and genomic selection (GS) applications possible for both model and non-model species. The exploitation of genome-assisted approaches could greatly benefit breeding efforts in American cranberry () and other minor crops. Using biparental populations with different degrees of relatedness, we evaluated multiple GS methods for total yield (TY) and mean fruit weight (MFW).

Image-based phenotyping for identification of QTL determining fruit shape and size in American cranberry ( L.).

Image-based phenotyping methodologies are powerful tools to determine quality parameters for fruit breeders and processors. The fruit size and shape of American cranberry ( L.) are particularly important characteristics that determine the harvests' processing value and potential end-use products (e.

Massive phenotyping of multiple cranberry populations reveals novel QTLs for fruit anthocyanin content and other important chemical traits.

Because of its known phytochemical activity and benefits for human health, American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon L.) production and commercialization around the world has gained importance in recent years. Flavonoid compounds as well as the balance of sugars and acids are key quality characteristics of fresh and processed cranberry products.

Mapping of Leaf Rust Resistance Genes and Molecular Characterization of the 2NS/2AS Translocation in the Wheat Cultivar Jagger.

Winter wheat cultivar 'Jagger' was recently found to have an alien chromosomal segment 2NS that has , a gene conferring resistance against leaf rust caused by The objective of this study was to map and characterize the gene(s) for seedling leaf rust resistance in Jagger. The recombinant inbred line (RIL) population of Jagger × '2174' was inoculated with leaf rust pathogen THBJG and BBBDB, and evaluated for infection type (IT) response. A major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for THBJG and BBBDB was coincidently mapped to chromosome arm 2AS, and the QTL accounted for 56.

Managing for Multifunctionality in Perennial Grain Crops.

Plant breeders are increasing yields and improving agronomic traits in several perennial grain crops, the first of which is now being incorporated into commercial food products. Integration strategies and management guidelines are needed to optimize production of these new crops, which differ substantially from both annual grain crops and perennial forages. To offset relatively low grain yields, perennial grain cropping systems should be multifunctional.

Plant-Herbivore and Plant-Pollinator Interactions of the Developing Perennial Oilseed Crop, Silphium integrifolium.

Sampling in Kansas and North Dakota documented the plant-herbivore and plant-pollinator interactions of the developing perennial oilseed crop, Silphium integrifolium Michx. The larva of the tortricid moth, Eucosma giganteana (Riley), was the most damaging floret- and seed-feeding pest in Kansas, with infested heads producing ≈85% (2015) or ≈45% (2016) fewer seeds than apparently undamaged heads. Necrosis of apical meristems caused stunting and delayed bloom in Kansas; though the source of the necrosis is not known, observations of the tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois; Hemiptera: Miridae), in S.

Construction of a High-Density American Cranberry ( Ait.) Composite Map Using Genotyping-by-Sequencing for Multi-pedigree Linkage Mapping.

The American cranberry ( Ait.) is a recently domesticated, economically important, fruit crop with limited molecular resources. New genetic resources could accelerate genetic gain in cranberry through characterization of its genomic structure and by enabling molecular-assisted breeding strategies.

Association mapping of leaf rust resistance loci in a spring wheat core collection.

We identified 15 potentially novel loci in addition to previously characterized leaf rust resistance genes from 1032 spring wheat accessions. Targeted AM subset panels were instrumental in revealing interesting loci. Leaf rust is a common disease of wheat, consistently reducing yields in many wheat-growing regions of the world.