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Genetic and molecular characterization of resistance to the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne hapla in carrots (Daucus carota)

Project


Project code: JKI-ZGO-08-4179b
Contract period: 01.02.2017 - 31.01.2020
Purpose of research: Experimental development

Beside several other nematode species, the Northern root-knot nematode Meloidogyne hapla is an important pest, which has an increasing importance in Germany and Northern Europe for carrot production in the field. The pathogen causes strong deformations and forking of the tap-roots resulting in total losses of the harvest in severe cases. In Germany, a control of nematodes by soil fumigation is not possible due to government regulations. Cultivars resistant to M. hapla would be highly desirable but are not yet available. Research on the identification of putative resistance sources in cultivated carrots and Daucus wild species was performed up to the mid nineties at the Institute for Applied Genetics of the University of Hannover (Germany) but due to reorganization of the institute no further investigations were done with this material. Our intention is to continue this research by verifying the earlier identified resistance donors and, based on these genotypes, to produce generative descendents through crossings. The major goals are to study the genetics of the resistance and to develop molecular markers which are suited for marker-assisted selection within our pre-breeding experiments. The optimal diagnostic markers to be used are gene-specific i.e. directly deduced from candidate resistance genes or their flanking genomic regions. Biparental carrot progenies used for the inheritance and marker studies as well as carrot accessions with a representative geographic background of descent will be phenotyped in vivo for tolerance or resistance to M. hapla infestation. Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS) and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) will be applied to the set of nematode-tested carrot accessions, with the aim to detect genomic regions or even candidate genes involved in tolerance or resistance. The carrot plant material developed and tested during the project shall be used as basis material to start breeding programs targeted to M. hapla resistance.

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Subjects

Framework programme

BMEL - research cluster

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