Food security for Africa: The Cowpea Story from Lab to Plate. Phil Roberts, UCR Tim Close, UCR Jeff Ehlers, Gates Foundation

Transcription

1 Food security for Africa: The Cowpea Story from Lab to Plate Phil Roberts, UCR Tim Close, UCR Jeff Ehlers, Gates Foundation 1

2 UC Riverside is an important partner in improving this important crop and training African students and researchers for more than 30 years! Gates Foundation has provided funding for work on cowpea to UCR since 2007.

3 Broader Context: Feeding a hungry and growing world 9 billion people by 2050, mostly in developing countries Source: FAO 2009 Shenggen Fan, May 2011

4 Global progress, but still many hungry... Current FAO Assessment of Food Security Decline of >200 million since , and by 100 million in last decade. But, > 800 million people still chronically undernourished in , majority in developing countries. Large differences across developing regions. Rates low in East Asia, South-East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean Insufficient progress in sub-saharan Africa, South Asia. These are the geographies where the Gates Foundation prioritizes its Ag Development work.

5 FAO Food insecurity heat map % of population undernourished Mali Burkina Ghana Nigeria Ethiopia Uganda Tanzania 3 Indian states, Bangladesh

6 Hunger problems much worse in semi-arid zones of Africa; These also have highest population growth rates in the world 6

7 Physical scale of the problem! The slivers of area on the previous slide are not small areas!

8

9 Productivity declining More intensive use /cereal-dominated farming systems Declining soil fertility- low fertilizer use (expensive) Options?

10 Put more legumes into the cropping systems! Nitrogen (N) and water are the primary drivers of plant productivity Legumes fix N in the air and leave it in the soil for the next crop corn following maize corn following climbing beans

11 Fortunately there are lots of legumes (not all good everywhere) Choi et al. 2004b

12 Cowpea is the legume especially well adapted to the hot and dry zones of West Africa INERA Research Station, (UCR Partner), Pobe, Burkina Faso

13 What is a Cowpea? Ever heard of the Blackeyed Peas? They are a form of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Domesticated in Africa, along with millets and sorghum Off to India and other parts of Asia Southern Europe from Roman times still grown in Italy, Greece Brought to the Americas with slave trade17th century Main grain legume in Northeastern Brazil Photo courtesy Dr. B.B. Singh Original Blackeyed peas!

14 Integral part of agricultural systems across much of Africa Niger, sorghum intercrop, camel but the yields remain far too low. farmers need improved varieties that resist critical pests Nigeria millet intercrop, hand Phil and Tim will now showcase the work they are doing to use modern plant breeding to help build better cowpeas for the small holders of Africa! 14

15 UCR Breeding Program Versatile products from different grain types Traditional blackeyes, pinkeyes -- dry beans, canning All White -- whole grain or flour Green blackeyes -- frozen veg packs

16 UCR Breeding Program

17 Cowpea in sub-saharan Africa A Cowpea Forage Vendor Grain vitally important in human diet Kano, Northern Nigeria Forage is highly valued for livestock feed Yacine grain, Senegal 17

18 Versatile food crop Major source of dietary protein (lysine, tryptophan) Nigeria dry grain Senegal - Fresh Grain SE Africa -- Leafy Vegetable 18

19 Cowpea in value-added foods sold on every street of major West African cities African fast-food Cowpea fritters ( Akara ) 19

20 Partners in Africa: INERA, Burkina Faso SARI, Ghana IITA, Nigeria ISRA, Senegal Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique 200 mm 600 mm Senegal Burkina Faso Nigeria 600 mm 200 mm Mozambique

21 UCR Coachella Research Station mimics W. African cowpea zone Ave. annual rainfall: mm (2 4 inches) Phenotyping loca/on

22 Cowpea Diversity Collections UCR ~ 6,000 entries USDA ~ 10,000 IITA ~ 15,000 2 primary Gene-pools Huynh et al. (2013) The Plant Genome 6 (2): 1-8

23 Cowpea yield constraints Seedling Flowering Flower thrips Aphids Pod filling Pod-sucking bugs Heat Post-harvest Pod borer Root-knot nematodes Drought Bacterial blight Viruses Macrophomina African varieties yield < 20% of potential Weevils Striga

24 Lines with resistance for trait mapping and marker-assisted breeding Heat Aphid R R S S Root-knot nematodes Striga R S R S

25 Fungal disease - Ashy stem blight Resistance available RES Field symptoms in Senegal Macrophomina phaseolina SUS

26 Seedling-stage drought resistance screening in greenhouse SUS Leaf senescence Stem greenness Recovery dry weight RES

27 Later-stage drought resistance screening in field in Coachella Restricted irrigation Full irrigation

28 Cowpea aphids

29 Aphid resistance from African cowpea bred into California blackeyes and African lines CB27 Susceptible IT97K resistant

30 Leaf tissues collected for DNA marker analysis

31 2 aphid resistance loci (genes) found LG1 LG2 LG3 LG4 LG5 LG6 LG7 LG8 LG9 LG10 LG11 Major QTL contributes 66% Minor QTL contributes 9%

32 Location on genetic map of many resistance genes (QTLs) LG1 LG2 LG3 LG4 LG5 LG6 LG7 LG8 LG9 LG10 LG11 Cowpea genetic map with 11 Chromosomes

33 As geneticists we study the genome of cowpea we find positions where favorable forms of genes exist. By using markers to sort through offspring in generations following controlled crosses we can approach an intended genotype much faster than we could without using markers. That is the essence of markerassisted breeding ; it is genotypeinformed decision making.

34 Chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, constituting the human genome. Cowpea has 11 pairs of chromosomes. Many genes per chromosome Two copies of each gene One copy per paired chromosome Different versions of genes are called alleles

35 Markers on genetic maps are analogous to sign-posts on roads. They indicate something in particular at or near the marked position. Markers occur in different forms, and they can be associated with differences in nearby features along a chromosome.

36 Depiction of a Chromosome Versus indicates a position where there is a difference, called a polymorphism indicates a position where there is no difference

37 versus indicates a position where there is a difference, a polymorphism The simplest difference is a single nucleotide in the DNA sequence (A, C, G or T) ACGTGTGCATGATTTGCAACGATGCTAGCTA. ACGTGTGCATGATATGCAACGATGCTAGCTA.

38 Polymorphisms in the Human Genome The human HapMap project initiated the mapping of 1000 s of variations associated with physical characteristics such as eye color and disease traits such as cystic fibrosis. The human genome contains about 3 billion bases (A, C, G, T) but nearly all variation occurs at about 3 million positions. Techniques have been developed to look at these positions in DNA samples. This is called genotyping. We have adopted this genotyping technology for use in cowpea.

39

40 An example of genotyping of humans is to reveal a carrier state of a defective allele that could result in cystic fibrosis in a child if the defective allele is present in both parents.

41 In our genetic work on cowpea, we make controlled crosses, choosing both the pollen parent (male) and recipient (female). We subsequently apply genotyping to sort through progeny plants grown from the resulting seeds in search of certain genetic contributions from each parent.

42 Illustration of Introgression of Aphid Resistance Using Markers Red = Recipient, Green = Donor Donor of Aphid Resistance X X X X X X X X X 1 st Backcross of F1 to Current Variety 2 nd Backcross Current Variety F1 Self- Pollinate

43 Gene/c Ideotype Breeding (can use markers to combine parts from mul/ple parents) Mouride Sanzi Melakh Graphical genotype of desired outcome

44 A Recent UCR Example Larger Seeds Introgression of a rare haplotype from Southeastern Africa to breed California blackeyes with larger seeds Lucas et al. 2015, Frontiers in Plant Science Donor Introgression Line Recurrent Parent

45 Breeding lines in UCR greenhouse for Africa

46 Collaborative breeding & Seed production training in Burkina Faso

47 New large-seeded white grain varieties for Senegal All lines with Bacterial Blight and Virus resistance

48 New white grain types for Burkina Faso Resistant to Striga-weed and some pathogens

49 A Few Take Home Points Science applied to plant breeding important for food security Sustained international funding for research is critical to progress Science is a team effort Get interested in science Eat your beans (especially blackeyes) to keep healthy 49

50 Thank you!