This project aims to identify wheat traits and agricultural practices that improve soil quality and crop resilience to stress. The researchers will (1) determine the benefits of mycorrhizal wheat varieties for soil and yields under stress, (2) establish how mycorrhiza and plant growth promoting bacteria interact to increase disease resistance, and (3) evaluate combining wheat genetics with management changes like reduced tillage to restore soil communities and quality, increasing sustainability and yields.

1. MycoRhizaSoil
Identify wheat genotypic traits, in combination with
agricultural field practices, which together facilitate
rhizosphere organisms to improve soil quality and
enhance crop resilience to climatic stress and disease.
Prof. Jonathan Leake
Prof. Duncan Cameron
Prof. Jurriaan Ton
Prof. Julie Scholes
Prof. Steve Banwart
Prof. Les Firbank
Prof. Joseph Holden
Dr Thorunn Helgason
Dr Andreas Heinemeyer
Dr Richard Summers
Peter Burgis
Oliver Pilbeam
MycoRhizaSoil
Dr Alastair Leake
Dr Nicola Hinton
Harnessing fundamental biological and ecosystem science
to create more resilient and sustainable farming systems
Identify wheat genotypic traits, in combination with
agricultural field practices, which together facilitate
rhizosphere organisms to improve soil quality and
enhance crop resilience to climatic stress and disease.

3. (Microbe-associated
molecular patterns)
Induced System Resistance
Systemic Acquired Resistance

4. Floods
Drought
Increasing soil water storage
capacity is important
Lack of ploughing enables the
survival of capillaries that
connect the surface layers with
water tables at much deeper
levels improving drainage and
water supply during drought
(Trewavas 2011).

5. Wheat cultivars differ in their ability to form mycorrhizal symbiosis
Dr R. Summers,
Prof. D.D. Cameron,
Prof. M. Burrell,
Prof. J.R. Leake,
Dr B. Hughes
Selection of elite high yield wheat lines under standardized high fertility conditions has generated varieties
with low mycorrhizal competence and greater susceptibility to climatic stress and pathogens.
Parent
with low-
mycorrhiza
competence
Parent with high-
mycorrhiza
competence
Wheat lines bred from the contrasted parents

6. Hypothesis:
Our central hypothesis is that by
minimizing tillage, adding
mycorrhizal inoculum, and
growing AM-competent wheat
varieties we can rebuild beneficial
mycorrhizosphere communities
including AM associated PGPR, soil
macroaggregates, soil carbon
content and soil quality thereby
increasing the resilience, long-
term sustainability and yield of
wheat production in the face of
climate stress.

7. MycoRhizaSoil
Research Objectives
To address 3 major needs and opportunities in relation to sustainable
wheat production using selected pairs of double-haploid wheat lines
bred from parents with contrasting mycorrhizal competence:
1. Determine the benefits of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) competent wheat for soil
quality (macroaggregate abundance, organic carbon, drainage and water-holding
capacity) and maintaining yields under typical climatic and biotic stresses.
2. Establish the mechanistic basis of synergistic benefits of mycorrhiza
competent wheat arising from AM x Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria
interactions increasing resistance to the major pathogens Take-All and Leaf
Blotch (Gaeumannomyces graminis var. Tritici, Septoria tritici).
3. Determine the efficacy of wheat genotypic traits in combination with
management change (use of commercial AM inoculants, switch to minimal
tillage, and use of grass leys) to restore AM functioning, beneficial
rhizobacteria, soil structure, carbon storage and related soil quality.
Establish resulting benefits from increased crop resilience to drought and
excess rainfall, resistance to pathogens and sustainable yields.

8. MycoRhizaSoil

9. Seed bulking up and large-scale trial- 11 named varieties
2 parental lines, plus 36 lines from a mapping population.
784 plots sampled
2 organic fields (4 replicates)
2 conventional fields
One block sprayed with fungicides, one unsprayed (2 replicates)

10. Greenhouse pot
experiment using soil from
Leeds university farm.
Hedge, grassy margin and
Arable 1 are from the field
used in MycoRhizaSoil
experiments. Arable 2 is
Rabbit Field.

11. High AM competence parent line Low AM competence parent line

12. Grass Ley Peas
AM inoculation trial
with 12 wheat lines
MycoRhizaSoil

13. 260 g m2
Initial field trial of use of mycorrhizal inoculum
compared to native arbuscular mycorrhiza
5 AMF species :
Funneliformis mosseae, F.geosporus,
Claroideglomus claroideum, Rhizophagus
irregularis, Glomus microagregatum.
Propagule numbers 1.6 million per litre.
1
12

17. Control
Low High Low High
4 5 6 3 7 8 4 5 6 3 7 8
Live Control
• DGGE of AM communities colonising 6 wheat varieties from the mapping population
• NS1-AM1/NS1-Euk1A 516-GC semi-nested PCR
• NMDS ordination using presence/absence matrix
• Inoculum is less diverse, but shares bands across samples, even in control suggesting
that taxa similar to those present in the inoculum are present in the field.
Dr Thorunn Helgason
Effect of wheat variety and inoculum on AM fungal communities in our field trial

18. -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
-1.0-0.50.00.51.0
Ordination of AM communities in wheat roots in
Control conditions (CL) and with live inoculum (LV)
NMDS1
NMDS2
3
4
5
6
7
8
High
Low
CL
LV
• Control and live inoculum
plots harbour different
fungal communities.
• Behaviour of high
competence varieties
drives the ordination
• Identity of variety is the
strongest predictor of
fungal community
Dr Thorunn Helgason
Effect of wheat variety and inoculum on AM fungal communities in our field trial
Early Results

19. Effects of mycorrhiza inoculation on wheat shoot pathogens

20. Live mycorrhiza inoculum Block A Control no inoculum Block A
Autoclaved inoculum Block A

21. Flag leaves from the highest-scoring mycorrhiza-competent wheat line in the mapping
population (7)
+ AM inoculum Control

22. Low Low Low LowHigh High High High High HighLow Low
Control
Autoclaved inoculum
Live inoculum
Mycorrhizal
Competence
(based on
numbers of
arbuscules)
Parents Mapping Population Lines Other varieties
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Steffi Tille University of Sheffield
Wheat line (1-12)

23. Plant and soil carbon fluxes
2 months after setup
Coring Hole Mesh collar Cutting
SRtot SRmyc SRcut
Roots
Mycorrhizal hyphae mostly plot 2 & 7
Soil microbes
Dr Andreas Heinemeyer & Anda Baumerte
Soil respiration

24. Ongoing work from Year 1:
Mycorrhiza colonization of roots by microscopy and metabolite
markers
Soil hyphal lengths and NLFA AM fungal biomass
AM fungal community analyses in all 12 wheat lines
Soil aggregate size distribution
Soil organic matter
Green shoot nutrient status
Straw and ear and grain yield and quality on harvest

25. MycoRhizaSoil
2015-18
Floods
Drought

26. • The parental and selected DH wheat lines will be used to study the impact of
mycorrhization on root/rhizosphere colonization by non-pathogenic PGPR,
using a GFP-tagged Pseudomonas putida strain that is adapted to cereal
rhizospheres.
Laboratory studies on the role of mycorrhiza-competence in
wheat on rhizosphere interactions with plant growth promoting
rhizobacteria and mycorrhiza-inducible resistance to pathogens
• The effect of the PGPR alone and in combination with AM inoculation on plant
growth and AM colonization will be determined, including measurements of
root architectural traits of the wheat lines and their responses to AM and PGPR
alone and in combination.
• The protective effect of mycorrhiza against below and above ground fungal
disease will be quantified. The selected wheat lines will be tested for
mycorrhiza-induced resistance against G. graminis and S. tritici.
• Investigate potential synergistic interactions between mycorrhiza and PGPR for
plant growth, plant health and pathways of induction of mycorrhiza induced
defences, in relation to mycorrhiza-competence of DH wheat lines under
controlled laboratory conditions.

27. MycorrhizaSoil
1. Establish a new area of research integrating wheat genetics, mycorrhizosphere
biology, plant defences, soil science, hydrology, carbon sequestration and tillage
management.
2. Demonstrate synergistic beneficial outcomes of crop lines and management to
promote beneficial soil microorganisms: more atmospheric CO2 sequestered in
the soil, better soil quality, greater crop resilience to climatic extremes (drought,
flooding) and stronger AM and PGPR induced defences against diseases giving
higher crop yields with lower inputs of fuel, fungicides (and possibly nutrients).
3. Agenda-setting new breeding strategies that select mycorrhiza-competent crop
varieties in combination with crop management approaches to deliver improved
soil quality and more sustainable and resilient wheat production.
Anticipated research outcomes

28. Acknowledgements:
Dr Alastair Leake
Dr Nicola Hinton Dr Richard Summers
Peter Burgis
Oliver Pilbeam
Martin Lappage
Stefanie Tille
Ewan Marshall-Harries
Dr Richard Grayson
Ruth Wade
Prof. Mike Burrell
Dr Mark Burrell
Acknowledgements