Wallace Cowling

University of Western Australia | UWA · UWA Institute of Agriculture

The United Nations declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) under the banner ‘nutritious seeds for a sustainable future’. A second green revolution is required to ensure food and nutritional security in the face of global climate change. Grain legumes provide an unparalleled solution to this problem because of their inheren...

We simulated pre-breeding in evolving gene banks – populations of exotic and crop types undergoing optimal contribution selection for long-term genetic gain and management of population genetic diversity. The founder population was based on crosses between elite crop varieties and exotic lines of field pea (Pisum sativum) from the primary genepool,...

Simultaneous genetic improvements in grain yield and heat stress tolerance are necessary to avoid a fall in crop yields caused by global warming during the 21st century. Future food security depends on crop breeding solutions to this challenge, especially in developing countries where the need is greatest. We stochastically model a wheat breeding p...

Zero hunger and good health could be realized by 2030 through effective conservation, characterization and utilization of germplasm resources ¹ . So far, few chickpea ( Cicer arietinum ) germplasm accessions have been characterized at the genome sequence level ² . Here we present a detailed map of variation in 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild accessio...

Crop breeding must achieve higher rates of genetic gain in grain yield (GY) and yield stability to meet future food demands in a changing climate. Optimal contributions selection (OCS) based on an index of key economic traits should increase the rate of genetic gain while minimising population inbreeding. Here we apply OCS in a global spring oilsee...

Heat stress affects the growth and development of Brassicaceae crops. Plant breeders aim to mitigate the effects of heat stress by selecting for heat stress tolerance, but the genes responsible for heat stress in Brassicaceae remain largely unknown. During heat stress, heat shock proteins (HSPs) function as molecular chaperones to aid in protein fo...

Soil is indispensable for agricultural production but has been seriously polluted by cadmium and salt in recent years. Many crops are suffering from this, including rapeseed, the third largest global oilseed crop. However, genes simultaneously related to both cadmium and salt stress have not been extensively reported yet. In this study, BnaA10.WRKY...

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), also known as canola, is particularly sensitive to high temperatures during flowering. However, the impacts of heat stress during male and female gametophyte development, several days before anthesis and fertilisation, remain unclear. In this study we selected two cultivars, AV-Ruby and YM11, which exhibited differ...

Climate change threatens global food and nutritional security through negative effects on crop growth and agricultural productivity. Many countries have adopted ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation targets that will exacerbate the problem, as they require significant changes in current agri-food systems. In this review, we provide a r...

Background Modern field pea breeding faces a significant challenge in selecting lines with strong stems that resist lodging. Traditional methods of assessing stem strength involve destructive mechanical tests on mature stems after natural senescence, such as measuring stem flexion, stem buckling or the thickness of dry stems when compressed, but th...

Identifying the molecular and genetic basis of resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) is critical for developing long-term and cost-effective management of this disease in rapeseed/canola (Brassica napus). Current cultural or chemical management options provide, at best, only partial and/or sporadic control. Towards this, a B...

Accuracy of predicted breeding values (PBV) for low heritability traits may be increased in early generations by exploiting the information available in correlated traits. We compared the accuracy of PBV for 10 correlated traits with low to medium narrow-sense heritability (h 2) in a genetically diverse field pea (Pisum sativum L.) population after...

Meiosis is the least explored stage for thermotolerance in wheat. We evaluated the impact of 5 d of moderate transient daily heat stress during meiosis in the main stem spike on physiological and grain yield traits in 30 diverse wheat cultivars which vary widely in heat tolerance and sensitivity. We found that a moderate heat stress event during me...

Key words Oilseed rape, timing of heat stress, intensity of heat stress, duration of heat stress, genotypic variation GRDC Project Code Number: DAN00107, DAN00208, UWA1905-007RTX Key messages 1. Timing of heat stress: The critical period for heat stress in canola begins one week before first flower and continues during the flowering period. Flowers...

Heat stress events during flowering in Brassica crops reduce grain yield and are expected to increase in frequency due to global climate change. We evaluated heat stress tolerance and molecular genetic diversity in a global collection of Brassica rapa accessions, including leafy, rooty and oilseed morphotypes with spring, winter and semi-winter flo...

We designed and validated a new multiplex PCR marker which discriminates between four insertion/deletion (INDEL) alleles in the 5' regulatory region of a major flowering time gene in Lupinus angustifolius, LanFTc1. The four INDEL alleles were the wild-type allele (ku) in variety Geebung (G), a 1208-bp deletion allele in accession P22660 (P), a 1423...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is important in African diets for protein, iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn), but traditional cultivars have long cooking time (CKT), which increases the time, energy, and health costs of cooking. Genomic selection was used to predict genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) for grain yield (GY), CKT, Fe, and Zn in an Afr...

Key message Quantitative resistance (QR) loci discovered through genetic and genomic analyses are abundant in the Brassica napus genome, providing an opportunity for their utilization in enhancing blackleg resistance. Abstract Quantitative resistance (QR) has long been utilized to manage blackleg in Brassica napus (canola, oilseed rape), even befo...

Key message A plant-specificTrimethylguanosine Synthase1-likehomologue was identified as a candidate gene for theeflmutation in narrow-leafed lupin, which alters phenology by reducing vernalisation requirement. Abstract The vernalisation pathway is a key component of flowering time control in plants from temperate regions but is not well understoo...

Crop production systems need to expand their outputs sustainably to feed a burgeoning human population. Advances in genome sequencing technologies combined with efficient trait mapping procedures accelerate the availability of beneficial alleles for breeding and research. Enhanced interoperability between different omics and phenotyping platforms,...

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic fungus causing devastating stem rot and associated yield losses of canola/rapeseed (Brassica napus) worldwide, including in Australia. Developing host resistance against Sclerotinia stem rot is critical if this disease in canola/rapeseed is to be successfully managed, as cultural or chemical control option...

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is sensitive to heat stress during the reproductive stage, but it is not clear whether the male and female reproductive organs differ in their sensitivity to heat stress. In this study, full diallel crossing experiments were conducted among four genotypes of B. napus under control, moderate and high heat stress cond...

In honour of the 25th anniversary of Trends in Plant Science, we wanted to take a look back over some of the milestones from recent decades. Here, we asked authors of the June 2021 special issue to reflect on the changes that have occurred within the field of plant breeding during the past 25 years, as well as to contemplate what the future might h...

Ensuring the sustainability of agriculture under climate change has led to a surge in alternative strategies for crop improvement. Advances in integrated crop breeding, social acceptance, and farm-level adoption are crucial to address future challenges to food security. Societal acceptance can be slow when consumers do not see the need for innovati...

Research to control yield losses from Sclerotinia (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) in oilseed rape (Brassica napus) has focused on stem resistance. However, resistance to leaf infection against this pathogen would also be beneficial, both in limiting additional plant leaf damage and in reducing inoculum build up within-crop and resultant spread onto stem...

Transient daily heat stress during flowering of canola (Brassica napus L.) as a result of global warming is an increasing threat to grain production in this important oilseed crop. We investigated the intensity and duration of transient daily heat stress treatment at different stages of reproductive development in three B. napus genotypes under con...

Yield of 70% of crops are reported to benefit from animal pollination, primarily by bees. There are major concerns that honey bee (Apis mellifera) decline will reduce food production. Current research focuses on bee health and its impact on crop production. Pollinators are considered essential for high yields of thirteen crops including melons. Her...

Sclerotinia rot, caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is a devastating disease on oilseed rape and mustard worldwide. While the focus to effectively control yield losses from Sclerotinia has been on locating stem resistance, resistance to leaf and to early (cotyledon) stage resistance to this pathogen are also important, both not...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a major component of agricultural systems and diets of the urban and rural populations of East and Central Africa, providing Fe and Zn essential to the health and well-being of African women and children, and protein essential for the entire household. However, bean consumption is limited by constraints such a...

Hybrid vigour has the potential to substantially increase the yield of self-pollinating crops such as wheat and rice, but future hybrid performance may depend on the initial strategy to form heterotic pools. We used in silico stochastic simulation of future hybrid performance in a self-pollinating crop to evaluate three strategies of forming hetero...

The narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) is endemic to coarse-textured neutral to acid sands across the Mediterranean basin, distributed over temperature and rainfall gradients leading to increasing N–S terminal drought. L. angustifolius has a conservative reproductive strategy compared to other Old World species, with relatively early ph...

Flowering time is a highly influential phenological trait for crop adaptation, and in the case of narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.), has been one of the most economically significant traits for crop production in both Australia and Europe. Given the importance of this trait, understanding the genetic basis of flowering time has become...

Narrow-leafed lupins (Lupinus angustifolius L.) were fully domesticated as a valuable grain legume crop in Australia during the mid-twentieth century. Pedigree records are available for 31 released varieties and 93 common ancestors from 1967 to 2016, which provides a rare opportunity to study genetic diversity and population inbreeding in a crop fo...

Abiotic stresses lead to an array of physiological and biochemical changes in crops which affect their growth and development leading to grain yield reductions. Oilseed Brassica species are vulnerable to heat and drought stress, especially in the early reproductive stage. We evaluated the use of several non-destructive phenomic tools to predict hea...

Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Oilseed Brassica species are vulnerable to heat and drought stress, especially in the early reproductive stage. We evaluated plant imaging of whole plant and flower tissue, leaf stomatal conductance, leaf and bud temperature, photochemical reflectance index, quantum yield of photosynthesis, and leaf gas exchange for...

Narrow‐leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) cultivation was transformed by 2 dominant vernalization‐insensitive, early flowering time loci known as Ku and Julius (Jul), which allowed expansion into shorter season environments. However, reliance on these loci has limited genetic and phenotypic diversity for environmental adaptation in cultivated...

Yield of 70% of crops are reported to benefit from animal pollination, primarily by bees. There are major concerns that honey bee (Apis mellifera) decline will reduce food production. Current research focuses on bee health and its impact on crop production. Pollinators are considered essential for high yields of thirteen crops including melons. Her...

Most grain crops are sensitive to heat stress during anthesis which causes substantial reductions in grain yield, and heat stress tolerance (HST) is therefore an important trait for selection in crop breeding programmes during the 21st century. We stochastically modelled breeding for flowering time, disease resistance, stem strength, and grain yiel...

A doubled haploid (DH) mapping population was obtained from microspore culture of an allohexaploid F1 from the cross between two recently-synthesized allohexaploid Brassica lines. We used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genetic variation based on restriction-site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing to construct a high density genetic linkage map o...

Summary of possible loss of chromosome(s) or chromosome segment(s) of 146 DH hexaploid Brassica plants. If more than 80% of SNPs are missing on a particular chromosome, this is shown as “loss of chromosome.” If more than 20% but less than 80% of SNPs are missing as a contiguous segment on a chromosome, this is shown as “loss of chromosome segment.”

SNPs and Indels variation types and their distribution in the allohexaploid Brassica parents and 146 doubled haploid progenies. P1 is maternal line 7H170-1, P2 is paternal line Y54-2, H1 is the hybridization product (H16-1) between two parents while SY003 to SY192 are 146 doubled haploid progenies derived from H16-1.

SNPs matrix for linkage map constructing and their chromosome location. P1 is maternal line 7H170-1, P2 is paternal line Y54-2 while SY003 to SY192 are 146 doubled haploid progenies derived from H16-1.

562 SNP and SSR markers which failed to be integrated into the high-density linkage map. Among them, there were 66 unlinked single loci and 48 extra linkage groups (XLG) including 3 linkage groups with more than 50 markers (XLG1 to 3), 7 linkage groups with 6 to 50 markers (XLG 4 to 14), five quintuplets, six quadruplets, seven triplets and 16 dupl...

Epistatic QTL pairs identified among 6 phenotypic traits including seed number, seed yield, pod length, plant height, 1000-seed weight and pollen viability ICIM-ADD method of QTL IciMapping 4.1 in a double haploid population derived from a hexaploid Brassica hybrid H16-1. “Intra” means intra-genomic QTL pairs while “Inter” means inter-genomic QTL p...

Production of oilseed rape/canola (Brassica napus) is increasingly threatened by dry conditions while the demand for vegetable oil is increasing. Brassica rapa is a genetically diverse ancestor of B. napus, and is readily crossed with B. napus. Recently, we reported promising levels of drought tolerance in a wild type of B. rapa which could be a so...

Adaptation of Lupinus angustifolius (narrow-leafed lupin) to cropping in southern Australian and northern Europe was transformed by a dominant mutation (Ku) that removed vernalization requirement for flowering. The Ku mutation is now widely used in lupin breeding to confer early flowering and maturity. We report here the identity of the Ku mutation...

Timing of life history events (phenology) is a key driver for the adaptation of grain crops to their environments. Anthesis (flowering) date is the critical phenological stage that has been most extensively studied. Maximum crop yield is achieved by maximising the duration of the pre-anthesis biomass accumulation phase and hence yield potential, wh...

Innovation has been integral in the development of the current Australian canola (Brassica napus L.) industry. From the initial introduction of poorly adapted Canadian germplasm, Australian breeders have developed high yielding, high quality, disease-resistant canola cultivars. The Australian canola industry has transitioned from being reliant on i...

Key message We present the first genetic map of an allohexaploid Brassica species, based on segregating microsatellite markers in a doubled haploid mapping population generated from a hybrid between two hexaploid parents. Abstract This study reports the first genetic map of trigenomic Brassica. A doubled haploid mapping population consisting of 189...

Brassica rapa L. is a genetically diverse parent species of the allotetraploid species, oilseed rape (B. napus) and a potential source of drought tolerance for B. napus. We examined the effect of a 13-day drought stress period during the early reproductive phase, relative to a well-watered (WW) control, on subsequent growth and development in nine...

We used the animal model in S0 (F1) recurrent selection in a self-pollinating crop, for the first time including phenotypic and relationship records from self progeny, in addition to cross progeny, in the pedigree. We tested the model in Pisum sativum, the autogamous annual species used by Mendel to demonstrate the particulate nature of inheritance...