Kidane Yosef G, Mancini Chiara, Mengistu Dejene K, Frascaroli Elisabetta, Fadda Carlo, Pè Mario Enrico, Dell'Acqua Matteo
Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant'AnnaPisa, Italy.
Sirinka Agricultural Research CenterWoldia, Ethiopia.
Front Plant Sci. 2017 Jul 17;8:1230. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.01230. eCollection 2017.
Smallholder agriculture involves millions of farmers worldwide. A methodical utilization of their traditional knowledge in modern breeding efforts may help the production of locally adapted varieties better addressing their needs. In this study, a combination of participatory approaches, genomics, and quantitative genetics is used to trace the genetic basis of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits. Two smallholder communities evaluated 400 Ethiopian wheat varieties, mostly landraces, for traits of local interest in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. For each wheat variety, farmers provided quantitative evaluations of their preference for flowering time, spike morphology, tillering capacity, and overall quality. Ten agronomic and phenology traits were simultaneously measured on the same varieties, providing the means to compare them with farmer traits. The analysis of farmer traits showed that they were partially influenced by gender and location but were repeatable and heritable, in some cases more than metric traits. The durum wheat varieties were genotyped for more than 80,000 SNP markers, and the resulting data was used in a genome wide association (GWA) study providing the molecular dissection of smallholder farmers' choice criteria. We found 124 putative quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling farmer traits and 30 putative QTL controlling metric traits. Twenty of such QTL were jointly identified by farmer and metric traits. QTL derived from farmer traits were in some cases dependent on gender and location, but were consistent throughout. The results of the GWA study show that smallholder farmers' traditional knowledge can yield QTL eluding metric measurements of phenotypes. We discuss the potential of including farmer evaluations based on traditional knowledge in crop breeding, arguing for the utilization of this untapped resource to develop better adapted genetic materials for local agriculture.
小农农业涉及全球数百万农民。在现代育种工作中有条不紊地利用他们的传统知识，可能有助于培育出更能满足当地需求的适应当地环境的品种。在本研究中，采用参与式方法、基因组学和数量遗传学相结合的方式，来探寻小农对硬粒小麦性状偏好的遗传基础。两个小农社区在埃塞俄比亚高地的两个地点，对400个埃塞俄比亚小麦品种（大多为地方品种）进行了对当地感兴趣性状的评估。对于每个小麦品种，农民们对其开花时间、穗形态、分蘖能力和整体品质的偏好给出了定量评价。同时对这些相同品种测量了10个农艺和物候性状，从而有办法将它们与农民评价的性状进行比较。对农民评价性状的分析表明，它们部分受性别和地点影响，但具有可重复性和遗传性，在某些情况下比计量性状的遗传性更强。对硬粒小麦品种进行了超过8万个单核苷酸多态性（SNP）标记的基因分型，并将所得数据用于全基因组关联（GWA）研究，对小农的选择标准进行分子剖析。我们发现了124个控制农民评价性状的假定数量性状位点（QTL）和30个控制计量性状的假定QTL。其中20个这样的QTL是由农民评价性状和计量性状共同鉴定出来的。源自农民评价性状的QTL在某些情况下取决于性别和地点，但总体上是一致的。全基因组关联研究的结果表明，小农的传统知识能够产生一些无法通过表型计量测量得到的QTL。我们讨论了在作物育种中纳入基于传统知识的农民评价的潜力，主张利用这一未开发资源来培育更适合当地农业的遗传材料。
