Nordapp Workshop April 2016 at Balsgård, SLU

Time schedule 26/4:

10:00-11:00, tour of phytochemistry lab and food processing hall

11:00–13:00, reports and discussions about work in 2016

13:00-13:30, lunch at Balsgård

13:30-15:00, tour of Balsgård: buildings and fields

15:00-17:30, coffea and continued discussions, also about work in 2017 and publications etc

18:00 Dinner in Kristianstad

Time schedule 27/4:

Larisa and Ibrahim show Dag, Saila and Tuuli around at Alnarp until time to go to Kastrup for flight take-off around 16.

1. WP1 Nordic-Baltic Platform (MTT)

Organize two workshops in eg. Finland and Baltic state (one meeting planned in Norway in the autumn 2016)

Graminor will organize a meeting in Hamar in Oct-Nov, suggested duration 2.5 days, with invitations also to Nordic and Baltic collagues involved in fruit and berry breeding – all need to help finding suitable people to invite.

Luke will probably organize a Nordic/Baltic breeders’ meeting in 2017, perhaps on the boat between Finland and Estonia.

Updating of Nordic-Baltic platform webpage

Luke is the host to our Nordic/Baltic platform website, and it is managed by Saila. More info is needed on (1) new fruit and berry varieties, (2) relevant events, (3) description of present varieties, (4) info about availability of plant material, (5) genetic resource collections, (6) contact info. In addition, Dag will make a ppt on the Norwegian breeding for this website.

2. WP2 Information - networking (Graminor)

Survey about diseases evaluated and disseminated

Dag will put together the results from the survey.

Participation at NordApp workshops, include also Baltic and Danish scientists

For meetings, see above.

Updating of NordApp webpage

Hilde and Dag will make major updatings of the project website, hosted by NordGen

3. WP3 Canker (SLU)

Inoculation at Balsgård (cut shoots of 8 cvs/selections 2015 and 2016, trees made for 2017)

Inoculations at Njøs in 2015 (cut shoots of 30 cultivars) and 2016

The inoculations work well at Balsgård and Njøs, but we are somewhat worried about the consistency of the results obtained. New data from 2016 is presently being collected.

In addition: Luke will start a new project in 2016 involving the monitoring of natural canker infections in Finnish orchards. They will also infect 12 trees per cultivar.

qPCR analyses at SLU-Alnarp for quantification of fungal biomass in apple wood (14 cvs tested with qPCR in 2015, and trees made for future analyses)

The qPCR analyses conducted at Alnarp have as yet (data from 2015) not managed to find any association between lesion size (as an estimate of cultivar resistance) and the amount of fungal DNA amplified. Additional analyses will be undertaken in 2016.

Crosses involving e.g. Prairiefire (SLU) and Stølen (Njøs), and other healthy cvs (all partners)

Crosses with e.g. Prairifire will be undertaken at Balsgård in 2016, while crosses with Stølen cannot be undertaken at Njøs until 2017 when pollen will be available.

4. WP4 (SLU)

Inoculations with e.g. Penicillium at Balsgård in 2015 (68 cvs inoculated), and with Neofabraea in 2015 (20 cvs inoculated) and 2016

Inoculation with Neofabraea at Piikis in 2015 (37 cvs inoculated, a subset with different isolates and types of inoculum) and 2016

Inoculations with Neofabraea at Njøs in 2015 (11 cvs inoculated with N. perennans and 3 cvs with N. alba) and 2016

All three partners reported on their efforts to develop a suitable method for inoculation with especially Neofabraea. Different types of inoculum, and application of this inoculaum, as well as data evaluation was discussed. Additional experiments will be conducted in 2016, based on the combined experiences from previous years. When all of this is put together, there should be material for several scientific publications. Using the best methods, more cultivars will be screened in the autumn.

Analyses of epidermal strctures at Luke and SLU

How to get started on this topic without access to a suitable microscope was discussed, hopefully there will be some developments

Crosses involving e.g. Fu Shuai (Njøs), and Ausma, Gloster, Pepin Schafranovij and Severnij Sinap (SLU) and local Finnish and/or scab-resistant cvs (MTT)

Some crosses were conducted already in 2015 but weather was poor and success very restricted. More crosses will be carried out in 2016.

5. WP5 (SLU)

SSR analyses of 59 Norwegian cvs (performed at SLU in 2015)

SSR analyses of Finnish cvs

Luke will genotype the cultivars they have used for experiments, possibly using the same set of SSR as Fruitbreedomics.

Application of Dutch QTL markers for canker resistance

Not yet available

Use of LAR 1-locus markers (done in NZ in 2015, no correlation with Penicillium)

Use of GWAS for identification of markers (done in France in 2015, no correlations found with Penicillium)

Additional analyses (marker loci) and data evaluations (marker loci and GWAS) will be conducted in 2016 and reported by SLU.

6. WP6 Information dissemination (Graminor)

Scientists: Papers and posters

Stakeholders: Meetings, workshops

Delivering data to SESTO at NordGen, and to Fruitbreedomics (done by SLU)

Some publications and posters have been presented, and two spin-off projects have been funded. Data has been delivered to Fruitbreedomics. NordGen (Sesto) will be contacted about downloading raw data and/or reports from the project.