Why Breed Wheat at OSU?
Goals
-
Short term
- High yield
- Disease resistance
- Improved end-use quality
-
Medium term
- Enhancing virus resistance
- Enhancing septoria resistance
- Developing hard red program
-
Long term
- Abiotic stress tolerance (winter hardiness and low pH soils)
Current Research Projects
The OSU wheat breeding program works specifically on winter wheat. 70% of the program focuses on soft white winter wheat; the other 30% is on hard white and hard red winter wheat.
Small White Winter Wheat - Cultivar Development
- Molecular markers
- RIL development
- Identification of markers for resistance to Stripe rust, C-stripe, Fusarium crown rot, and Septoria
- Identification of markers for end-use quality traits
-
2 gene imidazolinone resistance
- Breeding
- Di-haploids (wheat x maize)
-
Genetic transformation
- ABA enhancing
- BYDV siRNA gene slicing
-
End-use quality evaluations (soft and hard)
- Gliadin work (Celiac Disease)
- Falling number work
Hard Wheat - Hard White and Hard Red (New Program)
-
Low protein hard quality
- Genotype x fertilizer response
- Bx7 over-expressing gene
Graduate Student Expectations
Goal: Train students to run a breeding program so that they could step in as a field tech/breeder and be able to do every part of the job, including experimental design, planting, combining, note-taking, pesticide application, etc. Students are given at least two projects: one in the field and one in the greenhouse/lab, and must be able to give public presentations; practice obtained in seminar and at field days.
Breeding Methods
Sponsors
- Oregon Wheat Commission
- BASF
- Oregon Ag. Research Foundation
- Royalties from varieties
Collaborators
On campus:
- Mike Flowers, extension, agronomics
- Chris Mundt, plant pathology
- Andrew Ross, end-use quality
- Carol Mallory-Smith and Andy Hulting, weed science
- Jeff Leonard, molecular biology
Off campus:
- Limagrain
- BASF
- Washington State University
- University of Idaho
Graduate Student Projects
Current Students:
- Christy McCarthy
- Jiang (Scott) Liu
- Kali Brandt
- Mike Gallegos
- Susanne Trittinger
Past Students:
- Colleen Roseborough, Masters candidate - Examining a diverse group of US wheat varieties to look at gliadin content.
- M. Dolores Vasquez, PhD candidate - Mapping stripe rust resistance genes in wheat.
- R. Chris Gaynor, MS - Agronomic trait QTL analysis in wheat.
- Sarah Gehlhar, PhD - Relationship of protein composition to end-product functionality in Hard White Winter Wheat.
- Daniel Jepsen, MS - Developing improved nitrogen recommendations for dryland hard winter wheat in northeast Oregon
- Martin Quincke, PhD - Breeding for cephalosporium stripe resistance.
Botany
- Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L..
- Allohexaploid; Diploid progenitors: Triticum urartu (A), Aegilops speltoides (B), Aegilops tauschii (D)
- Domesticated in Western Asia.
- Market Classes: Durum, Hard Red Spring, Hard Red Winter, Soft Red Winter, Hard White, and Soft White.
Staff Profiles
Senior Faculty Research Assistants and Faculty Research Assistants
- Mark Larson: field management and data management. Works on experimental design, planting, harvest, and oversees fields.
- Adam Heesacker: lab, molecular markers, greenhouse, and winter crossing program.
- Stephanie Jencks: nursery management, assisting planting, pesticide applications, plot maintenance, harvest.
- Evan Hanson: extension field trials
Publications and Varieties Released
See the Wheat Breeding website for more information: