Location: Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research
Project Number: 3096-21000-019-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: May 29, 2013
End Date: May 28, 2018
Objective:
Objective 1: Identify and characterize genetic diversity in economically important agricultural crop plants for biochemical, physiological, and metabolic processes that condition plants for tolerance to drought and heat extremes.
Subobjective 1A: Identify the range of drought tolerance that exists within a diverse core reference set of entries from the National Cotton Germplasm Collection.
Subobjective 1B: Contribute to the broadening of the genetic base of cotton for improved drought tolerance by developing Recombinant Inbred populations, breeding lines, and mutant populations using fast-neutron and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis.
Subobjective 1C: Identify the range of heat stress tolerance in corn germplasm.
Subobjective 1D: Evaluate the usefulness of a stress visualization computer software platform that can present and compare environmental and plant stress information in an interactive and manipulative environment to provide novel insights into the relationships between environmental cues and plant responses.
Objective 2: Determine genetic mechanisms controlling biochemical and physiological processes that contribute to water-deficit and thermal stress avoidance and/or tolerance in agricultural crops.
Subobjective 2A: Evaluate the differential onset of water stress in pre- and post-flowering sorghums via metabolite changes.
Subobjective 2B: Characterize genetic and molecular mechanisms contributing to contrasting stress tolerance responses in peanuts.
Subobjective 2C: Identification of major QTLs and/or genomic loci that are associated with heat tolerance/sensitive traits in maize and characterization of genetic and molecular mechanisms contributing to heat tolerant traits in maize.
Subobjective 2D: Identify plant genes associated with improved abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis; and functionally characterize crop ftsh11 protease homologs in maintaining chloroplast thermostability and photosynthesis at elevated temperatures.
Subobjective 2E: Investigate small RNA regulation of plant stress responses and impact on transgene activity in genetically engineered plants.
Objective 3: Use integrated marker-assisted breeding methods to develop stress-tolerant cotton germplasm or cultivars with high fiber quality and resistance to Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. Vasinfectum (FOV).
Approach:
A multidisciplinary research approach will be utilized because of the complexity of the problems to be addressed. Genetic diversity will be identified for biochemical, physiological, and metabolic processes that condition plants for tolerance to drought and heat extremes. Genetic mechanisms controlling biochemical and physiological processes that contribute to water-deficit and thermal stress avoidance and/or tolerance will be determined. Marker-assisted breeding methods will be used to develop stress-tolerant cotton germplasm with high fiber quality and resistance to Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. Vasinfectum (FOV).
