Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

We met in conjunction with the North American alfalfa improvement conference.  We received reports on the range of our activities, and received an update on the renewal proposal to NE1710, the now accepted NE2210.  We have made good progress in developing regionally adapted pools of alfalfa germplasm.  COVID-related delays to our trefoil activities have eased, allowing the processing of digestible fiber that had been slowed.  Cool season grass development continues.  Development of switchgrass germplasm has led to two germplasm releases in process in Mississippi.  All projects are moving forward.

• Short-term Outcomes: We are in the process of developing improved germplasm of several forage and bioenergy crops, including alfalfa, birds foot trefoil, switchgrass, red clover, miscanthus, and cool season forage grasses.
• Outputs: Several varieties are moving towards release.  Four varieties of miscanthus are in the pipeline in Mississippi.  UF has released a new alfalfa variety.  Several Davis and Cornell varieties are moving formward
• Activities: We had great attendance at our hybrid meeting, given the state of the pandemic.  Our 2023 meeting will occur in Vermont.
• Milestones: With NE2210 approved, our next steps will be continuing ongoing germplasm evaluation and development, and starting new directions focused on cover crops.

Renzi JP, Brus J, Coyne C, Berger J, von Wettberg EJ, Nelson M, Ureta S, Hernández F, Smýkal P. 2022. How could the use of crop wild relatives in breeding increase the adaptation of crops to marginal environments?  Frontiers in Plant Science. 

Neher D, Harris JA, Horner K., Scarsborough M, Baddireddy A, Faulkner J, White A, Darby H, Farley J, von Wettberg EJ. 2022 Resilient Soils for Resilient Farms: An Integrative Approach to Assess, Promote and Value Soil Health for Small- and Medium-Size Farms. Phytobiomes. https://doi.org/10.1094/PBIOMES-10-21-0060-P

Jha U, Nayyar H, Parida SK, Bakir M, von Wettberg EJ, Siddique KHM. 2022. Progress of genomics-driven approaches for sustaining underutilized legume crops in the post-genomic era. Frontiers in Genetics.

Ageev A, Lee CR, Ting CT, Schafleitner R, von Wettberg EJ, Nuzhdin S, Samsonova MG, Kozlov K. 2022. Modeling of flowering time in Vigna radiata with Approximate Bayesian Computation. MDPI Agronomy. 11(11), 2317; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112317.

Ageev A, Aydogan A, von Wettberg EJ, Nuzhdin SV, Samsonova M. Kozlov K. 2021. Simulation model for time to flowering with climatic and genetic inputs for wild chickpea. MDPI Agronomy. 11(7):1389. 10.3390/agronomy11071389

Guerra-Garcia A, Gioia T, von Wettberg EJ, Logozzo G, Papa R, Bitocchi E, and Bett K. 2021. INCREASE intelligent collection of lentil genetic resources: evolutionary history, recent genomic characterization of germplasm, and the need for well characterized collections. Current Protocols, e134. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.134

Marques E, Kur A, Bueno E., and von Wettberg EJ.  2020. Defining ‘rotational value’ of crops.  Crop Science, DOI: 10.1002/csc2.20200

Coyne C, Kumar S. von Wettberg EJ, Marques E, Berger J, Redden R, Ellis N, Brus J, Zablatzká L, Smýkal P. 2020. Potential and limits of exploitation of crop wild relatives for pea, lentil and chickpea improvement. Legume Science.