Location: Crop Germplasm Research
2018 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Utilize unadapted germplasm to increase genetic diversity of elite sorghum inbreds with improved agronomic performance through a collaborative effort involving public and private sector breeders.
Objective 2: Create nested association mapping resources from backcross-derived introgression populations to facilitate marker-assisted sorghum improvement.
Approach
A major challenge facing crop geneticists and breeders is how to develop strategies that combine genetic resources with the vast amount of knowledge and tools in genomics, marker-trait associations, high-throughput phenotyping platforms, genome editing, and bioinformatics to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in applied breeding programs. This project aims to utilize recent advances in high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping, knowledge of gene-to-phenotype trait relationships, whole genome profiles of genetic diversity within and between sorghum germplasm accessions, and emerging information management systems to acquire knowledge of sorghum genes and germplasm, and utilize this information to enhance the rate of genetic gain for complex traits such as grain yield through the development of new adapted breeding material. Utilizing a pre-breeding backcrossing scheme augmented with robust genomic and phenotypic tools, this project focuses on the improvement of sorghum hybrids by the introgression of desirable traits from unadapted and wild germplasm into elite sorghum inbreds, which will introduce new elite germplasm and favorable genes for complex traits, including grain yield, into sorghum breeding programs. The products of this research will include well-characterized elite sorghum inbreds with new genetic diversity and desirable traits, improved effectiveness of hybrid breeding programs through the introduction of new superior-performing diverse elite inbreds, and the development of public resources including backcross-nested association mapping (BC-NAM) populations and associated phenotypic and genotypic characterization to facilitate genomic-assisted breeding and innovative approaches for dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits.
Progress Report
This is a new project that replaced 3091-21000-034-00D and which is continuing and expanding upon the work of the precursor project. Work under this project during FY 2018 resulted in significant progress in sorghum germplasm development, which included the distribution of forty-four populations of sorghum originating from backcrossing genetically diverse germplasm into elite public inbreds. This FY 2018 work addressed the project plan Objective 1 Milestone: Release bulked seed from BC1F2 introgression populations. In addition, significant progress in FY 2018 was made in creating nested association mapping resources to facilitate marker-assisted sorghum improvement. This FY 2018 work addressed the Objective 2 Milestone: Advance selected BC1F2 populations to BC1F3 generation. Research to date under this new project has achieved significant progress towards introducing novel genetic diversity into elite sorghum inbreds, and towards elucidating genomic regions underlying economically important traits that will enable the deployment of next generation genomic-based breeding tools in sorghum improvement programs.
Accomplishments
