NSFC-CGIAR Cooperative Project on Groundnut Aflatoxin Resistance Supported

Recently, the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the supported collaborative projects with research centers or institutions of Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) for 2014. The project proposal applied by Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (OCRI-CAAS) entitled “Discovery of novel groundnut genotypes with shell resistance to Aspergillus infection and QTL analysis for resistance” in cooperation with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has been approved for financial support.

Based on the Minutes for International Workshop on Improving Dryland Agriculture Productivity between NSFC and ICRISAT and ICRDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) in early June 2013 in Beijing, NSFC initiated its support for cooperation between Chinese and ICRISAT scientists in 2014.



As contamination of the highly carcinogenic and toxic aflatoxin is a major food safety factor which can seriously impede groundnut industry development and affect consumer’s health, both OCRI-CAAS and ICRISAT agreed to work together on improving aflatoxin resistance in groundnut. This collaborative project aims to systematically evaluate the shell resistance to Aspergillus infection in the cultivated groundnut by testing the representative mini cores from China, ICRISAT and USA and identify elite genotypes with shell resistance. The relationship between shell resistance with physical structure, phytoalexin (resveratrol) concentrations and transcriptomic profiles in different developing stages will be investigated. Molecular markers related to shell resistance in groundnut will be discovered through linkage analysis of RILs and association analysis of mini cores using SSR and SNP technique. These markers will be compared with markers link to resistance to seed infection and aflatoxin formation to identify germplasm lines with different loci. The expected results of the project will facilitate more efficient selection of breeding parents and promote aflatoxin resistance enhancement in groundnut.

OCRI-CAAS has long history in cooperation with ICRISAT for groundnut improvement. In 1997, Professor Boshou Liao from OCRI-CAAS was invited by ICRISAT as the Technical Coordinator of Groundnut Bacterial Wilt Working Group (GBWWG) which was jointly organized by ICRISAT and ACIAR (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research) in 1990. In June of 2013, the CAAS-ICRISAT Joint Laboratory for Groundnut Aflatoxin Management was set up at OCRI in Wuhan. The current NSFC supported project with a budget of 2.43 million yuan (RMB) would greatly facilitate the cooperation of the joint laboratory.