Getting to the root of the Ceora family tree

Those of you who remember our little discussion here recently of grasspea breeding, and in particular the importance (or otherwise) of breeding for low values of the neurotoxin β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP) in its seeds, will not be surprised to learn that a press release a few days ago announcing a new(ish) promising low-ODAP variety called Ceora sent me scurrying around in Genebank Database Hell.

Grass pea is a hardy annual legume with a growth habit similar to field pea, characterised by resistance to both drought and waterlogging. Its low cost, low input nature makes it a prime feed crop.

It has been restricted in use, however, due to the presence of neurotoxin ODAP, which causes paralysis of the lower limbs (lathyrism).

This was overcome by the breeding of cultivar Ceora (Lathyrus sativus) by Dr Colin Hanbury, Prof Kadambot Siddique and Dr Ashutosh Sarker of the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA).

With an ODAP level of 0.04 to 0.09 percent, Ceora virtually eliminates the toxin’s effects, making it safe for animal consumption.

Dr Gusmao has delved deeper into the plant’s benefits.

Those benefits are a suite of adaptations to cope with, and indeed also avoid, water deficits. Promising indeed. But how was this miracle plant concocted?

Ok, so googling pretty quickly revealed that Ceora, which incidentally “is the first grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) cultivar to be bred and released in Australia” …

…was derived from a cross made in 1994 at Northam, Western Australia (WA), using female parent K33 (originating from Pakistan) x male parent 8604 (originating from Bangladesh).

That’s from its official registration note. So all we now have to do is trace K33 and 8604. And that’s where I hit a wall. Because apart from finding that 8604 was also subsequently called ATC 80723 (see page 425 here), I could make no further headway. ((The ATC apparently refers to its ATFCC, or Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection, record, which indicates that it came from Bangladesh via the Western Australian Department of Agriculture, circa 1994.)) Sure, 8604 might be this accession in GRIN. But then again it might not be. And of a K33 (in its various permutations) from Pakistan I could find no mention in any database. There’s a grasspea labelled K33 cv Zubryak from Russia in VIR’s database, but that’s coincidence, surely.

So I was reluctantly forced, and not for the first time, to enlist the help of a Virgil, in this case Dirk Enneking, who has commented here frequently on grasspea and other pulse breeding issues. To cut a long story short, he used his global network of grasspea contacts to discover (or re-discover, as he also found some of this stuff buried in his old notes), that 8604 is a breeding line developed by crossing the Indian line Pusa-24 (as male) with the Bangladeshi landrace “Jamalpur local” (female). Both P-24 (as it is also known) and Jamalpur local have a history of use in grasspea improvement. The former in particular is known for its low ODAP content. As for, K33 its origin seems to lie with Pakistani researcher Hafeez I.T. Khawajas, but little is know beyond that.

Anyway, all this is of any conceivable interest to anyone only if they can get hold of the germplasm. ((Or perhaps if they doubt the value of multilateralism.)) Ceora is of course commercially available, although a reference sample is also stored in the USDA system. So too is P-24, although it is presumably also in the Indian genebank at NBPGR (and perhaps ICARDA, though I couldn’t find it on Genesys). Hopefully all this stuff is at Horsham, but I cannot be sure because they, like NBPGR, are not online. For now.

P.S. And here’s a final thought. This took a couple of weeks and endless emails to unravel. The much more complicated Wita 9 pedigree story just a few clicks. Once we get genebank databases sorted out, we’ll have to link them to breeders’ databases. Once.

P.P.S. Now, speaking of grain legume breeding in Australia, did someone mention the Afghan pea accession PS998?