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August 20, 2003
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Western Australia
is hosting a reunion of the global Cicer family tree as
local scientist, Fucheng Shan, sorts through the assembled
germplasm to find and transfer needed traits into local chickpea
crops.
Chickpea, which globally faces 47 different disease threats due
to its low genetic variability, can bring $A450 per tonne in
Western
Australia,
but has been ravaged by the fungal disease, ascochyta blight.
“Having been bred and selected from a narrow genetic base,
cultivated chickpea doesn’t have the same natural defences to
biotic and abiotic stresses as plants drawn from broad genetic
backgrounds,” Dr Shan explained.
Working through the
Centre for Legumes
in Mediterranean Agriculture
(CLIMA) at the University of Western
Australia,
Dr Shan and colleagues have gathered all known annual wild
relatives of cultivated chickpea from overseas gene banks to
belatedly adopt a more diverse genetic heritage into commercial
crops.
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Dr Fucheng
Shan is inspecting wild Cicer species, assembled by CLIMA,
which may hold the key to new disease resistances for
cultivated chickpea crops. |
Supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation,
CLIMA is characterising and evaluating the international family
of 108 annual wild Cicer accessions.
“We’ve developed molecular techniques to examine the samples and
will establish a DNA profile of each member to identify which
wild relatives might bolster the disease and pest resistance of
cultivated chickpea,” Dr Shan said.
“These profiles will also help identify when the wide crosses
needed to import desired traits from distant relatives to
cultivated chickpeas have been successful.”
Once the DNA profiling is completed, CLIMA researchers will
begin their molecular search of the Cicer genus to
identify traits for crossing into commercial cultivars to build
a more resilient crop.
Chickpea would provide a good lupin alternative on heavier clay
soils in WA’s northern, central and eastern grainbelt and,
according to CLIMA, could be grown across 200,000 ha if this
research helped overcome some of its major constraints. |
