Alfalfa Crop Wild Relatives for climate

change adaptationHumphries, A.*,1,9, Ovalle, C.2, del Pozo, A.3, Inostroza, L.2, Barahona, V.2, Ivelic-Saez, J.2, Yu, L.4, Yerzhanova, S.5, Meiirman, G.5 Abayev, S.5, Brummer, E.6, Hughes, S.1,9, Bingham, E.7, Kilian, B.8

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5 4 32

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Crop Trust

Crop Wild Relatives Program – AimIdentify, collect, conserve, and use crop wild relatives to improve diversity for climate change adaptation (focus on developing countries)

Alfalfa project key steps

• Collect extreme examples of drought tolerance in perennial Medicago

• Make hybrids between these distant relatives

• Build capacity with groups in Kazakhstan, Inner Mongolia and Chile.

• Make germplasm freely available to breeders around the world.

‘Stay green’ alfalfa

Germplasm acquisition• USDA and Australian Pastures Genebank – accessions linked to drought

• Plant collections in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and China focussing on the driest regions (SARDI, KSRIAPG, CAAS)

• Crop Trust KEW collection in Italy and Georgia (~2015)

• Russian Vavilov Institute Research (VIR) – 21 ecotypes targeted Sinkskaya

Magdallenes alfalfa, Patagonia ChileJorge Ivelic-Saez and Luis Inostroza - INIA , J

60 cm, 70 years old

Alta Sierra, North Chile- Andean Mountains, 3500m elevation

Species examples

Medicago arborea (2n =32)Medicago strasseri (2n =32)

Medicago truncatula(doubled 2n =32), annual

Medicago sativa subsp. falcata(2n =16, 32)

CWR of alfalfa that have extreme levels of drought tolerance are being used to develop hybrids that plant breeders can more easily integrate into their programs

Crossing Medicago sativa (alfalfa) with M.arborea (shrub) to develop hybrids with improved forage yield, and potentially larger root systems to improve drought tolerance

Summary of new CWR lines / hybrids

Taxon No. Lines Fall

dormancy

Parents / Description

M.s.varia 9 2-4 1. Field selections for persistence in South Australia

2. Crosses with Kazakhstan VIR falcata and “M.trautvetteri”

with high yield

M. truncatula 4x 28 n/a Tetraploid seed lines doubled from M.truncatula cv. Sultan SU

M. sativa x M. s.

caerulea

3 3-5 APG42382 collected from the Abseron peninusula, very hot

and dry site.

M. sativa x M.

arborea

3 3-10 Edwin Bingham Alborea composite line. 500 plant population

M. sativa x M.

arborea

181 10 22 Arborea accessions x FD7 and FD10 lucerne varieties

M. sativa x M.

strasseri

66 7-10 APG41909 x FD7 and FD10 lucerne varieties

Evaluation sites

Australia

Chile

KazakhstanInner Mongolia

Hildago

Cauquenes

AdelaideCoomandookMeningie

HuhhotAlmaty Siziwang

Kokshetau

Drought tolerance physiology- Alejandro del Posa - Talca

Hyperspectral camera mounted on robot –NIR, NDVI, LIDAR (biomass, ME, protein)

NDVI showing divergence for leafiness on means of progeny from 6 selected parents. 206 plants measured in this population.

Line: Sultan SU Green Canopy: 9.24%

Line:3-4 Green Canopy: 16.99%

Canopeo: A mobile phone App that quantifies green canopy cover

• Tetraploid Medicago truncatula plants have larger leaves and 30% more vigour than their diploid parents

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Almaty nursery with Tian Shan mountain range in background

Hohhot alfalfa seed production nurseryHuhhot, Inner Mongolia, China

Cauquenes, central Chile, Central Chile

Extension to smallholder and subsistence farmers

• Demonstration farm of rainfed alfalfa at Cauquenes

• Provide training and hand out 1000 packets of alfalfa seed to smallholder farmers in central Chile.

• Introduce use of honey bees to improve pollination in Kazakhstan

• Demonstrate small-scale silage making to subsistence farmers in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia

• Seed sharing scheme to improve adoption in Inner Mongolia

Helping smallholder and subsistence farmers- Almaty. 80% milk production from farmers with <4 cows

Full information on germplasm and evaluation data soon to be available on Germinate 3 at:

https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/cwr/alfalfa

Almaty nursery with Tian Shan mountain range in background