Location: Forage and Range Research
Project Number: 2080-21500-002-028-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Sep 30, 2026
Objective:
Conduct genetic analysis of plant collections and breeding lines in order to:
1. Understand how genetically diverse breeding lines are in order to decide upon further breeding.
2. Estimate relatedness and population structure between plant collection in order to group related populations and reduce workload for breeding.
3. Discover the potential of inbreeding depression.
Approach:
Young plant tissue will be collected by NRCS colleagues and sent to USDA-ARS for lyophilization and DNA extraction. Samples will be genotyped with open source genotyping procedures at certified core facilities. Estimations of 'population' genetic relatedness, diversity, and structure will be estimated with R packages. Reports will be collaboratively assessed by ARS and NRCS colleagues, and publications prepared for peer review.