Dwarfing Technology
Under Drought Stress
Today’s wheat varieties have a yield potential of 10 tons/ha but the average harvested yield is ~3 tons/ha. About 70% of this difference between the potential and the harvested yield is due to various abiotic stresses. Currently used dwarfing mutations exhibit adverse effects on many agronomic traits i.e. drought sensitivity, poor emergence, shorter roots, salinity sensitivity, and heat sensitivity to name a few. Others and our data has shown that the currently used dwarfing genes suffer more than 10% yield under even mild drought, heat or salinity stress. The loss is more than double for the double dwarfs. We have developed and characterized six new dwarfing genes each specifically designed for a specific wheat growing condition. For example, we have developed a new dwarfing genes that performs significantly better than the currently used dwarfing gene under irrigated condition. Similarly, we have developed dwarfing genes specific for drought condition, salinity prone areas, for the areas where water is present deep in the soil and for rainfed areas. We are in the process of developing DNA markers specific for each of these dwarfing genes to help with the easy transfer in any wheat background, IP protection, and for the licensing of the dwarfing genes. We have developed a fast breeding method using which a value added gene can be transferred to a background of choice within two years to result in release ready lines.
In addition to the dwarfing technology, we have either developed or in the process of developing the following technologies:
Herbicide tolerance
Drought tolerance
Salinity tolerance
Deeper and robust rooting for each access of nutrients and water present deep in the soil.
We are in the process of developing user-friendly DNA markers for these traits for licensing, easy transfer to a background of choice and for IP protection. We also have gene transfer service using which a value added gene can be transferred to any background of choice in a very short period of time.
To learn more visit:
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1449074&HistoricalAwards=false
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1632575