Location: Vegetable Crops Research
Project Number: 5090-21000-073-104-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
Obj. 1 - Identify sources of genetic variation in diverse wild and cultivated carrot germplasm for economically significant traits identified by stakeholders.
Obj. 2 - Develop genetic mapping populations to combine sources of allelic variation identified in Obj. 1.
Obj. 3 – Using multi-parental and bi-parental populations to map location(s) of genes underlying economically important traits and combine diverse selected alleles in breeding pools.
Obj. 4 - Evaluate breeding pools in field trials and controlled greenhouse/growth chamber environments.
Obj. 5 - Release selected breeding pools for seed companies and research use.
Approach:
1-The specific research milestones include: (i) sequencing, de novo assembly, and annotate 20-25 elite breeding lines and landraces harboring alleles underlying important traits; (ii) Identify SNPs and SVs representative of genetic diversity in diverse germplasm and elite breeding lines; (iii) Produce optimized genotyping platforms for trait discovery in targeted populations, introgress alleles contributing to traits with simple inheritance, and genomic assisted selection for complex traits in carrot breeding populations.
2 – Conduct genetic mapping in populations created from crosses with elite breeding lines and landraces for economically important traits with complex genetic inheritance including resistance to Alternaria leaf blight, bolting resistance, and salinity tolerance.
3- Intercross evaluated populations to develop, evaluate and release breeding pools including elite alleles selected for targeted traits.