Location: Cereal Crops Improvement Research
Project Number: 3060-21000-046-045-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 4, 2025
End Date: Sep 3, 2027
Objective:
The objectives of this research project are to identify molecular and genetic switches for single and/or combined biotic and abiotic stress (heat, drought, and salinity) tolerance traits, genetically map, and clone underlying genes regulating these traits, and understand the molecular and genetic mechanisms of tolerance to individual and/or combined stresses to develop resilient germplasm in small grain cereals.
Approach:
Cereals are major sources of dietary energy and nutrients in human diets. Global cereals production is highly impacted by various biotic and abiotic stresses that contribute significantly to yield losses. Extreme weather patterns are posing additional threats to US agriculture and food production. The current project will investigate biotic (cereal diseases) and abiotic stresses (heat/drought and salinity) tolerance in small grain cereals such as wheat, barley and oat. The long-term goal is to develop mechanistic understanding of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance response to individual and/or combined stresses at molecular and genetic levels. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) on association panels, QTL mapping, stress regulated RNA seq on contrasting lines, functional genomics, and bioinformatics approaches etc. will be used extensively in the proposed research. Genotyping and phenotyping data will be analyzed to identify genomic regions/ candidate genes involved in individual or/and combined stresses and crosstalk among stress tolerance responses. Marker trait associations (MTAs), genomic regions, and cloned genes will be investigated at molecular level to understand their roles in stress tolerance mechanisms. Further, important traits/genes and markers related to stress tolerance will be introgressed into breeding material using genomics assisted methods for their deployment in future breeding programs to develop resilient small grain cereals.
This research supports the mission critical and stakeholders’ prioritized research for enhanced productivity of American agriculture through cooperative experiments to study the molecular and genetic regulation of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance related traits to enhance the yield and yield stability of small grains under stress.