Genomic Approaches for Climate Resilience Breeding in Oats

Abstract

Oat (Avena sativa L.), ranking sixth in world cereal production, is primarily produced as a multipurpose crop for grain, pasture, and forage or as a rotation crop in many parts of the world. Recent research has elevated its potential dietary value for human nutrition and health care. Oats are well adapted to a wide range of soil types and can perform on acid soils. World oat production is concentrated between latitudes 35-65º N, and 20 to 46º S. Avena genomes are large and complex, in the range of 4.12 Gb to 12.6 Gb. Oat productivity is affected by many diseases, although crown rust (Puccinia coronataf. sp. avenae) and stem rust (Puccinia graminisf. sp. avenae) are the key diseases worldwide. The focus of this chapter is to review the major developments and their impacts on oat breeding, especially on the challenges posed by climate or environmental changes (biotic and abiotic stresses mainly) for oat cultivation. Next generation breeding tools will help to develop approaches to genetically improve and manipulate oat which would aid significantly in oat enhancement efforts. Although, oat biotechnology has been advanced at a similar pace as the rest of cereals, it lags still behind. More genomic tools, from genomic assisted breeding to genome editing tools are needed to improve the resources to improve oats under climate change in the next few decades.

Influence of Variety and Nitrogen Fertilization on the Technological Parameters of Special Malts Prepared from Naked and Hulled Oat Varieties

“…The analysis of the extract content in congress wort shows that worts from naked oat malts and hulled oat malts are characterized by a lower extract content compared with typical congress worts made of barley malt, in which the extract content ranges from 8.1% to 9.0% [2,11,59,71]. None of the worts obtained in this study fell within this value range.…”

“…Naked oat most likely originated in Mongolia and northern China [9]. It is a plant that can be successfully grown on a wide variety of soils and geographical latitudes [10][11][12]. Oats possess various advantages over barley, which is why it would be beneficial to determine whether this material could be used for the brewing industry.…”

Changes in Plant and Grain Quality of Winter Oat (Avena sativa L.) Varieties in Response to Silicon and Sulphur Foliar Fertilisation under Abiotic Stress Conditions

“…Oat can also provide a variety of nutritional benefits, such as carbohydrate in the form of starch; micronutrients such as iron, zinc, manganese, and copper; lipids, and vitamins, like folate and pantothenic acid [ 4 ]. Hence, the current research progress and development on oat varieties, and oat end-use products, could make a fundamental contribution to combat human diseases such as gastrointestinal problems [ 5 , 6 ]. Oats could be very important in the diet of people suffering celiac disease (CD), although there could be differences between the varieties, and some patients cannot tolerate oats well [ 7 ].…”

Crop-climate link in the southeastern USA: A case study on Oats and Sorghum

“…Sorghum and oats are ranked 5th and 6th in terms of the world's grain production [41,42]. According to USDA-NASS [43] , the US produced oats worth 161 million dollars, and sorghum worth two billion dollars.…”