Oats for the Future
Deciphering potential of host resistance and RNAi to minimise mycotoxin contamination under present and future climate scenarios
This study aim to perform an association mapping analysis of hexaploid oat (Avena sativa L.) cultivars for resistance to mycotoxins produced by Fusarium langsethiae, by detecting genetic variants involved in the resistance using Genome-Wide Association (GWA) analysis. In addition, a screening of a wide range of heritage Irish oat genotypes for distinct gene expression profiles relevant to differential mycotoxin contamination profiles will be performed. Finding regions of the genome associated with resistance to F. langsethiae will highlight chromosome locations of the oat genome that could be used as hotspots for further studies. This research is part of a BBSRC-SFI grant where other collaborators from UCD (Dr. Fiona Doohan) and Cranfield University (Dr. Naresh Magan and Dr. Angel Medina) are participating.
The picture above shows the experimental design with 200 oat varieties at the Lyons research farm.
A diversity panel of 190 spring oat varieties from the i) European Avena Database (EADB), ii) Nordic Genetic Resource Centre and iii) Irish heritable germplasm from the Virtual Irish Centre in Crop improvement (VICCI) will be used for this project. The panel represents cultivars from important oat producers in Europe.
The picture above shows our postgraduate student Kane D´arcy Cusack is checking the irrigation system. Fusarium langsethiae require high humidity to grow.