1. Pre-Breeding and Trait Discovery
Flagship Program 5
Pre-Breeding and Trait Discovery
Rajeev Gupta, PhD (Cantab)
Principal Scientist & Theme Leader-Genomics & Trait Discovery, ICRISAT
FP5 Leader- CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes & Dryland Cereals (GLDC)

2. FP5: Vision & Mission
“To develop and deploy modern genetic, omics (genomic, phenomic, etc.) molecular resources and tools for structural, comparative, translational and functional genomics approaches for mapping, dissection and characterization of target traits leading to marker/allele/events discovery and improved processes for deployment in breeding to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in GLDC crops”

3. FP5: Core Team An excellent team with many members!
Flagship Program 5 (FP5): Pre-breeding & Trait Discovery
Leader
Rajeev Gupta (ICRISAT, India)
CoA 5.1 Pre-breeding
Ousmane Boukar (IITA, Kano)
Jean-Francois Rami (CIRAD)
CoA 5.2 Trait discovery
Damaris Odeny (ICRISAT, Nairobi)
Laurent Laplaze (IRD)
CoA 5.3 Enabling technologies
Pooja Bhatnagar (ICRISAT)
Aladdin Hamwieh (ICARDA)
An excellent team with many members!
Going forward: CoA specific sub teams

4. FP5: Cluster of Activities (CoAs)
Major activity
CoA 5.1: Pre-breeding
Use of natural (e. g, in un-adapted germplasm) or induced (e. g., mutants populations) diversity available in key priority traits in GLDC crops
CoA: 5.2 Trait discovery
Trait discovery, dissection and elucidation with molecular, omics, biochemical and physiological tools to provide markers/alleles/events for use in breeding
CoA 5.3: Enabling technologies
Modern enabling tools, technologies, and platforms to facilitate efficient trait discovery and breeding

5. CoA 5.1: Pre-Breeding
Examples of Traits

6. CoA5.2: Trait Discovery Prioritized Target Traits in GLDC Crops

7. CoA 5.3: Enabling Tools and Technologies

8. Stages of Discovery & Deployment in Crop Improvement Pipeline
STAGE A
IDEA CONCEPTION
STAGE B
PROOF OF CONCEPT
STAGE C
OPTIMIZATION
STAGE D
DEPLOYMENT
INFORMED DECISIONS
FP FP4
‘Fail Fast’: Drop non-promising projects/activities ‘sooner the better’

9. FP5: Impact Pathway

10. Thank you Demand-driven Innovation for the Drylands www.gldc.cgiar.org
In partnership with CGIAR Centers, public and private organizations, governments, and farmers worldwide
Thank you

11. Major Current Constraints to Enhance Genetic Gains in GLDC crops
Limited genetic variability in the germplasm for some important traits (e. g., Helicoverpa resistance in chickpea and pigeonpea, dry root rot resistance in chickpea)
Barriers to interspecific hybridizations in chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea etc.
Lack of varieties with consumer preferred traits such as grain nutritional value, cooking quality, reduced post harvest losses for market demand
Unavailability of high-throughput and low cost genotyping platform in most GLDC crops
Unavailability of high-throughput diagnostic markers for key traits in most of GLDC crops
Lack of high throughput & cutting edge genetic engineering platforms such as genome editing
High throughput precision phenotyping platforms in most of the key traits for GLDC crops

12. Intermediate Indicators of Success for Various Groups of Traits
Group of Traits
Intermediate indicators of success
Abiotic stress tolerance
Drought QTLs fine mapped to identify gene responsible, HTP markers available and deployed in forward breeding,
Biotic stresses tolerance
Transgenic events for insect resistance available in chickpea and pigeonpea. Validated HTP markers available for key abiotic stress tolerance traits in all crops.
Improved grain nutritional quality
HTP markers developed for protein content in chickpea and pigeonpea, oil content in groundnut and Fe and Zn content in at least four GLDC crops.
Post-harvest losses/consumer-preferred traits
 Sources of resistance identified for rancidity in pear millet and aflatoxin contamination in groundnut.

13. FP5: Break Out Session
W1/W2 is very-very limited and 80% to used to cover salaries
Identify the priority activities/projects in each CoA for 2018 & beyond
Leverage funds available in current bilateral and estimate gap funding
Check with partners for partnership to deliver
Priority list of activities for 2018
Priority list for long term activities
RMC makes final call of funding support
Innovation fund
$0.5M for 2018
Partners can leverage
More details to come from RMC

14. FP5: Break Out Session CoA breif description of activity/project
2018 or 2018+
Bilateral funding $
Gap funding $
lead & Interested/potential partners (committed Y/N)
Expected outcome (with time line)