Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research
Project Number: 8062-21000-052-015-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2024
End Date: May 31, 2027
Objective:
The objective of this research is to determine the potential impact of enhanced maize cold tolerance on crop yield, resilience, and sustainability in the US Corn Belt under current and future climates (AIMS1 & 2). This is complemented by a gene and allele discovery pipeline that taps into the adaptations found in maize landraces, teosintes, and related species in the Andropogoneae. These adaptations will be dissected genetically, physiologically, and biochemically to nominate candidate gene targets for enhanced cold tolerance and establishment under cold conditions. Leading candidate hypotheses will be evaluated using transgenic and editing technologies (AIMS 3 & 4). By the end of year 3, we should have a clear evaluation of whether there is sufficient genetic/physiological variation in these relatives to have a meaningful impact on applied corn production in the Corn Belt.
Approach:
The Cooperator will focus their research on AIMS 1 and 2. The Cooperator will lead simulations of the impact of increased cold tolerance in maize growth and development, critical to understand the impact of CERCA traits on yield. The collaborator will evaluate DSSAT maize models for accurate prediction of the effect of soil temperatures in development, and implement new routines in maize growth models for accurate representation of processes involved in cold tolerance. Second, the collaborator will lead the impact assessment of cold tolerant traits in the Midwest. The collaborator will fuse crop growth models (DSSAT) and various genomic wide prediction (GBLUP, XGBoost, etc.) via global and local optimization.
