Effects of Genotype and Growing Year on the Nutritional Composition and Pasting Properties of Glabrous Canary Seed (Phalaris canariensis L.) Groat Flours.

Canary seed flour is a new food ingredient that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada recently granted Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) status. Stability in nutritional composition and functional properties is an essential characteristic of food ingredients for consistency in nutritional quality and performance in processing. This work assessed the effect of genotypic and environmental variation on the nutritional (protein, starch, amylose, oil, dietary fiber, minerals and fat-soluble vitamins) and pasting (as measured in viscosity (peak, trough, breakdown, final, and setback), peak time, and pasting temperatures) properties of Canary seed. The samples included four Canary seed varieties grown in randomized complete block design experiments at one location for two growing seasons. In general, the nutritional composition of Canary seed flour was not affected by genotype, growing year, and their interaction except for starch content, which was significantly affected by the growing year (p < 0.0001), and iron content, which was affected by genotypic variation (p < 0.0001). The pasting properties of Canary seed flour were significantly (p < 0.001) affected by both genotypic and growing year variation but not their interaction. Our results suggest that the food industry should measure starch and iron content prior to processing to ensure consistency in nutritional labeling. Also, for those applications where starch pasting properties are essential, the manufacturer should consider measuring the RVA pasting viscosities for every batch of raw material. The results have provided the baseline knowledge of which nutritional or functional properties of Canary seed flour can be improved through breeding and agronomy programs to ensure the reliability of Canary seed as an ingredient.

Genomic prediction of agronomic traits in wheat using different models and cross-validation designs.

KEY MESSAGE: Genomic predictions across environments and within populations resulted in moderate to high accuracies but across-population genomic prediction should not be considered in wheat for small population size. Genomic selection (GS) is a marker-based selection suggested to improve the genetic gain of quantitative traits in plant breeding programs. We evaluated the effects of training population (TP) composition, cross-validation design, and genetic relationship between the training and breeding populations on the accuracy of GS in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Two populations of 231 and 304 spring hexaploid wheat lines that were phenotyped for six agronomic traits and genotyped with the wheat 90 K array were used to assess the accuracy of seven GS models (RR-BLUP, G-BLUP, BayesB, BL, RKHS, GS + de novo GWAS, and reaction norm) using different cross-validation designs. BayesB outperformed the other models for within-population genomic predictions in the presence of few quantitative trait loci (QTL) with large effects. However, including fixed-effect marker covariates gave better performance for an across-population prediction when the same QTL underlie traits in both populations. The accuracy of prediction was highly variable based on the cross-validation design, which suggests the importance to use a design that resembles the variation within a breeding program. Moderate to high accuracies were obtained when predictions were made within populations. In contrast, across-population genomic prediction accuracies were very low, suggesting that the evaluated models are not suitable for prediction across independent populations. On the other hand, across-environment prediction and forward prediction designs using the reaction norm model resulted in moderate to high accuracies, suggesting that GS can be applied in wheat to predict the performance of newly developed lines and lines in incomplete field trials.

Virulence Dynamics and Breeding for Resistance to Stripe, Stem, and Leaf Rust in Canada Since 2000.

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a major field crop in Canada in terms of acreage, annual production, and export market value. There are nine classes of Canadian wheat based on growth habit (winter or spring), kernel hardness (hard or soft), seed coat color (red or white), and quality factors (grain protein content and gluten strength). Wheat was described by Newman in 1928 as "the economic fairy to the industrial and commercial life of Canada, having built practically the whole economic structure of the Prairie Provinces." Wheat production in Canada is affected by several biotic and abiotic stresses. The major abiotic stresses are frost damage, drought, and heat stress. Among biotic stresses, diseases caused by fungal pathogens are the most important although wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) has caused some localized outbreaks in some years. In context of cultivar registration in Canada, there are certain diseases that breeders have to take into account while developing resistant cultivars. The Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye, and Triticale (PRCWRT) classify wheat diseases into priority one, priority two, and priority three depending on prevalence and potential damage they can cause. However, priority one diseases are more of a concern and a minimum level of resistance in commercial cultivars is recommended for those.

The Effect of Fhb1 and Fhb5 Quantitative Trait Loci in Hard Red Spring Wheat Does Not Depend on Fungicide Use for Managing Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum, is one of the most damaging diseases that affect wheat in Canada. The disease is best managed by integrating host resistance and fungicides, mainly demethylation inhibitors. Research has shown that the effect of fungicides may be dependent on the level of resistance of the cultivar. However, whether the performance of genotypes carrying specific Sumai 3-derived major FHB quantitative trait loci is dependent on fungicide application has not been explored. In our study, the performance of near-isogenic lines (NILs; <1.0% genome/alleles from the resistance donor), carrying Fhb1 and Fhb5 in a hard red spring wheat cultivar CDC Go background compared with a moderately susceptible (MS) genotype, was evaluated with and without one application of metconazole during full flowering. Field experiments were conducted at five site-years in Saskatchewan, Canada, between 2016 and 2017. In both the individual and combined analysis (all trials), we found that the effect of NILs and metconazole in suppressing FHB symptoms and deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation in the grain was additive. FHB severity was generally low and fungicide efficacy levels, relative to the untreated control, were increased in the MS cultivar than in the NILs carrying Fhb1 and Fhb5, which were least affected by the disease. The results confirm the importance of integrating fungicides with cultivar resistance to reduce FHB and DON, regardless of the presence of those well-characterized resistant genes.

Showcasing the application of synchrotron-based X-ray computed tomography in host-pathogen interactions: The role of wheat rachilla and rachis nodes in Type-II resistance to Fusarium graminearum.

Fusarium head blight, caused primarily by Fusarium graminearum (Fg), is one of the most devastating diseases of wheat. Host resistance in wheat is classified into five types (Type-I to Type-V), and a majority of moderately resistant genotypes carry Type-II resistance (resistance to pathogen spread in the rachis) alleles, mainly from the Chinese cultivar Sumai 3. Histopathological studies in the past failed to identify the key tissue in the spike conferring resistance to pathogen spread, and most of the studies used destructive techniques, potentially damaging the tissue(s) under study. In the present study, nondestructive synchrotron-based phase contrast X-ray imaging and computed tomography techniques were used to confirm the part of the wheat spike conferring Type-II resistance to Fg spread, thus showcasing the application of synchrotron-based techniques to image host-pathogen interactions. Seven wheat genotypes of moderate resistance to Fusarium head blight were studied for changes in the void space volume fraction and grayscale/voxel intensity following Fg inoculation. Cell-wall biopolymeric compounds were quantified using Fourier-transform midinfrared spectroscopy for all genotype-treatment combinations. The study revealed that the rachilla and rachis nodes together are structurally important in conferring Type-II resistance. The structural reinforcement was not necessarily observed from lignin deposition but rather from an unknown mechanism.