Breeding hardier crops for Saskatchewan - Dynamic phenotyping to dissect component of water stress in wheat
Term: 4 years, beginning in 2021
Status: Ongoing
Funding Amount: $138,600
Lead Researcher(s): Dr. Steve Robinson (Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon, SK)
Funding Partners: Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) and Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF)
Project Description
One of the biggest challenges faced by agriculture is the requirement for improved or sustainable crop productivity under abiotic stress but studying and identifying ways to mitigate these stresses has proved to be difficult tasks. The effects of a changing climate, the unpredictability of local weather patterns and the lack of suitably adapted cultivars are making strategic farming decisions even more difficult. To mitigate future crop production problems and maximize wheat yield we need to breed wheat that are better able to deliver higher yields under water stress.
The main objectives of this project are: 1) to establish a high throughput phenotyping system that enable to accurately measure differences in transpiration and biomass accumulation; 2) to analyze variation in Nested Association Mapping population (NAM) founder lines of wheat to identify the genotypes better able to transpire and continue photosynthesizing under water stress; 3) to map the underlying quantitative variation controlling biomass accumulation under water stress and 4) to evaluate the stress resilient material in field trails comparing performance under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions.
This project builds on the on going three sub-projects at AAFC, University of Saskatchewan and Global Institute of Food Security, on characterization of the NAM populations to reveal phenotypes often hidden from sight, studies on root system architecture and the established genomics resources in wheat. This will allow the rapid identification of associated genetic loci for water stress (QTL) that will be deployed in future breeding programs.