Award details

Genetics and physiology of wheat development to flowering: tools to breed for improved adaptation and yield potential

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA471
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Simon Griffiths
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	210,931
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2012
End date	31/12/2015
Duration	47 months

Abstract

The overall objective of this project is the timely delivery of knowledge, variation, and tools to breeding programmes for developmental attributes of wheat that will improve adaptation and yield. This addresses short term Global and European food security issues and establishes a platform for long term genetic gain and maintenance breeding. For this reason, in this project we aim to test a set of physiological hypotheses, and identify prospective genetic factors and valuable germplasm, for flowering time and its phenological partitioning, in wheat. These hypotheses will relate to adaptation and crop performance. We will assemble a varied range of the genetic materials necessary to test and extend these hypotheses in the form of predictive models. Specific objectives include • to assemble appropriate germplasm panels (including near isogenic lines, segregating populations, collections for association mapping, and specific varieties/breeding lines) representing known genetic variation for developmental traits • to phenotype in the germplasm panels of the project agronomic traits determining adaptation and yield potential. • to characterise developmental traits determining flowering time in the genetic material of the panels studied (e.g. timings to onset of different phenophases and processes, dynamics of leaf number initiation and phyllochron, dynamics of floret development and grain set) • to relate phenotyped traits across levels of organisation, integrating genotypic and phenotypic information in QTL identification, and testing potentially useful QTLs in realistic breeding conditions • to deliver genetic markers for physiological components of complex phenological traits to allow the breeder to build flowering/phenology crop types by marker assisted selection of gene combinations • to provide a gene expression tool box which will allow the observed variation, including environmental interactions, to be connected to specific markers of gene expression and show through which environmental perception and flowering time pathways genotypic responses are mediated • to explore the actual value of particular developmental alleles (affecting either adaptation or yield potential) across a wide range of growing conditions throughout Europe, to test response to different climates and prepare for climate change and changes in climate variability The participants gathered in the proposed consortium provide a balance of whole plant physiology and genetic expertise and are ideally placed to exploit the materials we have assembled which include doubled haploid mapping populations, varieties, near-isogenic lines (NILs) and collections for association mapping. The programme of work will significantly advance our genetic and functional understanding of both flowering time and independent growth stage regulation, providing robust tools for manipulation of both adaptation and yield potential in wheat.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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