Harnessing new technologies for sustainable oat production and utilisation

Oats are a valuable break crop in cereal rotations, a lower input crop than wheat, perform well in marginal areas and are a high value feed that grows well in grassland based rotations. Nevertheless there is a need to improve key traits that will increase the production and utilisation of oats whilst also mitigating climate and environmental change via reduced agricultural inputs. Research also needs to anticipate changes in the market as consumers shift towards healthier diets of which oats are a key component. Discussions with end-user groups from the milling and livestock sectors, as well as processors, all key partners in this project, have identified the priority areas where genetic improvement can make quantifiable improvements to the oat crop. Various approaches to marker discovery have been tested and high density oat maps have been established however it has become clear that there is relatively little polymorphism in cultivated oats and therefore an urgent need to maximise the use of available polymorphism and be able to select precisely for novel polymorphisms from non-UK adapted germplasm if it is to be used effectively by plant breeders. This project will address these issues by developing and applying state-of-the-art genomic and metabolomic tools for targeted oat genetic improvement. The focus is on the understanding and manipulation of key traits that will enhance the value of oats in human health improvement, realise the potential of oats as a high value animal feed and develop new opportunities for using oats through advanced fractionation. In so doing it will also increase the environmental and economic sustainability of cereal based rotations and capitalise on the value of oats as a low input cereal. Powerful enabling technologies for the identification of specific genes and markers will drive the development of breeder -friendly tools accelerating the production of improved oat varieties that will be marketed by industrial partners. This is a multi-disciplinary project which combines modern phenotyping methodologies with the expertise of genomics researchers, oat breeders and end-users, which will also address long term breeding goals by developing experimental populations which are polymorphic for agronomically important traits but more amenable to mapping and forward genetic approaches than conventional agronomic lines. Involvement of the various end-users of oats (food, feed and industrial uses) in the evaluation of novel oat lines will facilitate the transfer of this research into oat breeding programmes and deliver oat varieties with the characteristics that industry requires and deliver environmental benefits to sustainable production systems.

Oats are a significant crop in the UK, are well adapted to low input agriculture and are considered to have particular benefits for human health. Understanding the genetics of key agronomic traits in oats will allow precise and efficient breeding strategies to be developed, and will be of relevance to the development of other UK cereal resources. This project will exploit recent improvements in genomics technologies to establish detailed reference genome information for cultivated oats based on the closest diploid relatives, Avena strigosa and Avena atlantica. Next-generation sequencing will be used to identify parental EST polymorphisms, which in turn will be used to generate a high density map based on the characterised diploid mapping population. Forward genetic approaches will then be established following the creation of an A. atlantica parent BAC library. Candidate genes will be recovered and validated, and syntenic/functional correspondence examined in oat cultivars. Next-generation sequencing of developing grain will be used to improve marker coverage in the existing winter oat map, and more sophisticated hexaploid mapping resources based on MAGIC populations will be established. Breeder friendly tools to increase the precision of oat improvement will be developed and validated and the robustness of marker-trait associations will be tested in a range of environments. The project will translate information from diploid to cultivated species and will support work on specific agronomic traits being carried out in associated work packages. These focus on the understanding and manipulation of key traits that will enhance the value of oats in human health improvement, capitalise on the value of oats as a low input cereal, increase the environmental and economic sustainability of cereal based rotations, realise the potential of oats as a high value animal feed and develop new opportunities for using oats through advanced fractionation.

As part of a large LINK project this work will have significant economic and environmental impact. Advanced germplasm identified through a combination of phenotypic and molecular analysis will be developed into potential new varieties which have the traits essential for appropriate end-users and which deliver environmental and economic benefits to sustainable farming systems. It will increase the competitiveness of the UK industry and will capitalise on the value of oats as a profitable component of sustainable arable production for human and livestock consumption and for industrial end uses. It will build on and exploit the successful OatLINK project which has demonstrated the added value that can be achieved from bringing together in one project the different components of the oat production chain and the various end-users of oats and oat products. Involvement of the entire oat production chain and participation of the various end-users of oats in the testing and evaluation of potential new varieties developed within the project provides a direct route for exploiting and benefiting from the results. Oats are recognised as a healthy human food and a key focus of this project is the development of oat varieties with improved grain composition particularly of those components which are of direct benefit to human health. Understanding the genetic basis of these traits will enable the precision breeding of tailor-made varieties for the healthy foods market which will have a positive and direct benefit for the health of the UK population. The impact of this project will therefore be significant to the primary producers as well as to the milling industry and food manufacturers. The arable sector will benefit through the development of new oat varieties that meet the needs of industry and the market. The milling industry will benefit by ensuring the commercial sustainability of the UK oat crop and from identifying novel uses for its waste product (hulls). The oat product industry will benefit from the ensured continued sustainability of the UK oat crop and the access to raw material with a broader spectrum of qualities (oil & beta-glucan content and composition etc) that will allow them to reduce waste in their process and diversify and expand products bases by using more appropriate oat varieties.There will be a significant impact on the UK livestock sector as the development of high oil/low lignin oats will provide feed compounders and farmers with a valuable ingredient that will be higher in energy than wheat and would be used in least cost formulated diets. There will be significant direct environmental benefits from this project which will be of public benefit. Oats are a relatively low input crop and incorporation of oats into cereal production systems will reduce the UK environmental footprint by reducing the resource use associated with the production and distribution of agricultural inputs and the burden associated with grain imports. Lower levels of applied nitrogen will also reduce the nitrogen leached from agricultural land into groundwater. Incorporation of high oil/low lignin oats into animal feed rations could will lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, from livestock production and will make a significant contribution to reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions. Increased use of oats would also lower nutrient and pesticide use and reduce the use of plant growth regulators through the careful selection of varieties. There will also be benefits from a reduction in ammonia emissions and acidification potential, whilst retention of a greater proportion of excreted N in the manure would improve manurial value and reduce the need for use of synthetic fertilisers with higher carbon footprint.