Breeder friendly high-throughput phenotyping tools to select for wheat adaptive traits in drought-prone environments

Published on 29 November 2010

Research Areas

Crops, Water Management

Countries

Syrian Arab Republic

Timeline

Start Date: 1 November 2008 | End Date: 21 October 2011

Overview

The objectives are the following:

1. Develop and validate a field-based, low-cost, high throughput phenotyping system to assess crop water status, canopy size and functionality, with the purpose of estimating patterns of crop water use on a seasonal basis, while monitoring other major crop developmental traits.

2. Assess the relative impact of putative key traits on drought adaptation by comparing related lines contrasting in trait value in different drough mega-environments. Target traits will be transpiration efficiency, tillering, stem water soluble carbohydrates (WSC), early vigour, stay green and flowering.

3. Apply findings 1 and 2 to guide characterization of the combination of traits behind ICARDA lines known for their high performance under drought. All project lines will be genotyped using SSR markers from the GCP genetics diversity kit.

4. Build capability in non-invasive phenotyping methods related to drought tolerant traits and the estimated value of different traits