Location: Weed and Insect Biology Research
Project Number: 3060-21220-033-030-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 5, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2027
Objective:
The objective of this project is to phenotype a diversity panel consisting of 182 accessions of Camelina sativa (camelina) germplasm and 59 accessions of closely related camelina species for agronomic traits (grain yield and seed size, freezing tolerance, days to flowering and maturity, total seed oil content and fatty acid profiles) under environmentally controlled conditions. Genotypic and phenotypic data will be used to conduct Genome Wide Association Studies to identify regions of the chromosomes associated with the various agronomic traits discussed above.
Approach:
A diversity panel consisting of 241 accessions of camelina at the USDA-ARS-ETSARC in Fargo, ND will be phenotyped for the following agronomic traits:
1. Freezing resistance - plants will be grown for 2 to 3 weeks under controlled greenhouse conditions and will then be subjected to cold acclimating conditions (5 C for 8 weeks) prior to a freezing treatment (-15 C for 4 hours). All cold acclimation and freezing treatments will be performed in environmentally controlled walk in chambers. Plants will then be returned to the greenhouse for phenotypic analysis (plant damage assessment using visual, automated and fluorescence technologies).
2. Seed size - plants will be grown to maturity (with and without cold acclimation) and seed will be collected, cleaned, and phenotyped for Thousand Seed Weight (TSW) and for seed size (length, width, area) using a Marvin Proline II seed analyzer.
3. Seed oil and protein - seed (as described in #2) will be analyzed for total fat (oil), fatty acid profile, and protein content using near infrared spectroscopy.
4. GWAS for agronomic traits - phenotypic data collected from 3 independent studies (minimum of 3 plants/study), as well as existing genotypic data for the diversity panel, will be used to conduct GWAS to identify specific regions of chromosomes associated with the various traits of interest.