Location: Crop Germplasm Research
Project Number: 3091-21000-046-004-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 15, 2022
End Date: Sep 14, 2025
Objective:
Aid in the collection of phenotypic data to develop genetic markers for desirable traits including climate adapted pecan trees, reduced vivipary, nut size and shape, nut quality characteristics, salinity and drought tolerance, improved resistance to fungal and insect pests, and optimized tree architecture that can be used in molecular breeding strategies.
Approach:
Our location will primarily be responsible for collecting phenotype data for a wide variety of traits (e.g. growth traits, disease traits, and nut traits) in our repository collection. We will also provide access to historical phenotype data that may inform GWAS analyses. In addition to phenotyping efforts, we will also perform field collection trips to increase the diversity of four hickory wild relative species that hold promising traits for use in pecan breeding. We will also pursue disease research to characterize host-pathogen interactions for pecan leaf scab, Venturia effusa, in our two mapping populations. A separate study is also being conducted to localize the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, responsible for Pecan Bacterial Leaf Scorch (PBLS) within the pecan seed and examine climate and environmental impacts that promote disease symptoms of pecan bacterial leaf scorch in young trees.
