Small Grain Genetics

Small Grain Genetic Program

Equipment

  1. Genetic lab 
  2. Shared equipment: ABI 7500, ViiA 7 for high throughput KASP SNP

 

Objectives
Improving wheat production using techniques of conventional breeding and molecular genetics and genomics.

 

Traits of interest
Drought and heat tolerance, resistance to greenbug (GB), hessian fly (HF), Russian wheat aphid (RWA), and wheat curl mite (WCM)as well as leaf, stem and stripe rust and streak mosaic virus.

 

Current research projects

  1. Mapping QTL for drought tolerance in TAM cultivars: Using bi-parental and association mapping to identify tightly linked SNP markers to traits of interest.
  2. Mapping genes for resistance to greenbug, wheat curl mite, hessian fly and wheat streak mosaic virus: Using 90K wheat array SNP to identify tightly linked markers, converting them into KASP SNP markers, validating their diagnoses and applying them in marker-assisted breeding for these traits.
  3. Developing germplasm lines with multiple stress tolerance combining conventional and marker-assisted breeding techniques: collecting and testing germplasm lines and cultivars from CIMMYT, Kenya, China, making crosses using two way, three way and multiparent advanced generation inter-cross (Magic) population, developing spring and winter germplasm lines with resistance to rusts, RWA, GB, HF, WCM, drought tolerance and any of these combinations plus end-use quality.

Funding Agencies

  1. Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Monocot and Cropping System programs
  2. Texas Wheat Producer Board
  3. Triticeae – Coordinated Agricultural project (T-CAP) – University of Minnesota
  4. Monsanto Beachell Borlaug International Scholarship – Texas A&M AgriLife Research
  5. Borlaug International Scholar, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Texas A&M University
  6. USAID – University of California-Davis
  7. Bayer Crop Science

Comments are closed.