Location: Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research
Project Number: 3020-21000-012-009-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2021
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
The objective of the project is to combine genomic data with high-throughput phenotyping data to model and predict the agronomic performance of winter wheat breeding germplasm derived from first backcrosses to wheat's ancient ancestors, Triticum dicoccoides and Aegilops tauschii. The project will assess the impact of application of selection on the frequency of ancient ancestor alleles in the model breeding program.
Approach:
A synthetic breeding program of 400 genotypes will be constructed from ancient ancestor-derived winter wheat germplasm. Field trials will be established in three contrasting Kansas environments. Agronomic performance parameters will be measured on the genotypes grown in the field trials. The trials will be evaluated with high throughput phenotyping techniques to derive spectral reflectance indices during the growing season. The genotypes in the trial will be characterized with intermediate-density genomic markers. Genomic prediction models integrating the spectral reflectance will be constructed, and the accuracy of their prediction in tested and untested environments will be evaluated. The impact of sequential cycles of genomic plus phenomic model-based selection on the frequency of ancient ancestor alleles in the breeding population will be measured. The genomic plus phenomic model will be applied to untested germplasm, and breeding outcome assessed both on allele frequencies and agronomic performance.
