Location: Sugarcane Field Station
Project Number: 6030-22000-011-001-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2016
End Date: Jun 7, 2020
Objective:
The ARS’s long-term goal is to improve energy cane productivity and sustainability by providing resistance to key diseases with novel genes from Miscanthus.
Approach:
A. In miscane backcross (BC)1 populations (sugarcane x (sugarcane x Miscanthus (M.))), identify molecular markers associated with novel genes from Miscanthus that confer resistance to at least two out of four of the following economically important diseases of sugarcane: ratoon stunt, yellow leaf, orange rust, and smut.
B. Compare effectiveness of different molecular marker analysis methods for selecting disease resistance alleles in miscane BC populations. In particular, compare the pseudo-testcross quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping strategy (the gold standard for sugarcane) with genomic selection.
C. Screen germplasm collections of M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus for resistance to ratoon stunt, yellow leaf, orange rust, and smut to confirm that Miscanthus is uniformly immune to these diseases as prior data suggests or to quantify genetic variation for resistance if not all accessions are resistant.
