Australia: University of Western Australia welcomes Iranian input into barley breeding

Quantifying how well cereals, such as barley and wheat, can tolerate drought can be a measure of their true value to dryland agricultural systems, such as those in Western Australia and Iran, SeedQuest reported April 22.

Although hemispheres apart, there are similarities and some of these were recently assessed by Iranian PhD scholar Shahab Maddah-Hosseini while in Western Australia on a six month ATSE Crawford Fund training award from August 2007 to January 2008.

Supervised by The University of Western Australia (UWA) Chair in Agriculture and Director of the Institute of Agriculture, Professor Kadambot Siddique and CSIRO Plant Industry Principal Research Scientist, Dr Jairo Palta, he found that grain filling, and therefore yield, in barley under terminal drought conditions, varied according to variety.

Iranian PhD candidate Shahab Maddah-Hosseini, Dr Jairo Palta of CSIRO and Professor Kadambot Siddique of UWA discuss the contribution of awns to grain filling in different barley varieties under terminal drought in the glasshouse at CSIRO.

He discovered that photosynthesis of the awns (part of the ear) was greater than of the flag leaf in some of the Australian barley varieties Clipper, Corvette, Stirling, Gairdner, Baudin and Vlamingh.

According to Professor Siddique, these finding have implications for breeding barley cultivars to dryland environments, especially as a strategy for adapting to climate change, which is already having an impact on Australia and Iran.

UWA’s Research Station in Shenton Park has more than 11,000 lines, comprising wild types, landraces, varieties and breeding lines, in its general barley collection.

The 30 year old UWA barley germplasm enhancement project has contributed to the development of several successful barely varieties in WA and nationally, most recently providing parental lines used in the breeding of the malting variety Vlamingh launched in February 2006.

Dr Palta said Mr Shahab Maddah-Hosseini’s training in WA focussed on glasshouse experiments to determine the role of the vegetative parts of the ear, particularly the awns, in providing carbon assimilates for grain filling in barley under terminal soil water deficits.

“The experiments were designed to allow him to learn about glasshouse facilities, particularly controlled temperature and humidity, methods to induce and measure water deficit, techniques to measuring photosynthesis in the vegetative parts of the ear and measuring and analysing dry matter remobilisation,” Dr Palta said.

Mr Maddah-Hosseini visited sites at Geraldton, Morawa, Wongan Hills, Brookton and Merredin in the WA grainbelt, where trials and crops of barley, wheat, legumes and oilseeds were grown.

This allowed him to observe field experimental systems and techniques used to evaluate adaptation of barley and wheat genotypes in areas limited by water and nitrogen.

Professor Siddique and Dr Palta said skills developed by Mr Maddah-Hosseini in WA would directly benefit his PhD research project at the Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

Mr Maddah-Hosseini’s discussions and interaction with supervisors, mentors and researchers at CSIRO and UWA would also help him generate new research ideas on drought tolerance of cereals in Iran.

“For Australia, his work will help future barley breeding programs in terms of specifically targeting traits for superior adaptation to drying climatic conditions,” Professor Siddique said.

“As his experimental glasshouse data requires further analysis, he will maintain regular contact with his supervisors at UWA and CSIRO.

“Once this analysis is completed, we will help Mr Maddah-Hosseini prepare a manuscript for submission and publication in an international scientific journal.

“His visit to WA has strengthened UWA’s relationship with the University of Tehran,” Professor Siddique said.

23 April, 2008