The Triticeae CAP: Discovery and Deployment of Novel Gene Variants to Ameliorate the Impact of Climate Change On Barley and Wheat Productivity.

Climate changes require rapid responses from breeders to engineer novel varieties with specific developmental and adaptative characteristics. This precise engineering requires a better understanding of the regulatory gene networks underlying important agronomic traits. The Triticeae CAP project uses Association Mapping and QTL analyses to identify chromosome regions affecting drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency and disease resistance. Molecular markers and genomic tools are then used to accelerate the deployment of these traits in barley and wheat public breeding programs. New genomic tools are used to dissect chromosome regions carrying valuable traits, to identify the underlying genes, and to characterize the different haplotypes present in the wheat and barley germplasm. Using this approach my laboratory has identified three major flowering genes in wheat and determined their natural allelic variation and their role in wheat adaptation to changing environments. We also identified a gene from wild wheat that regulates nutrient remobilization and increases grain nitrogen concentration 5 to 10%. This improved nitrogen use efficiency can be used to reduce the negative impact of increased CO2 concentrations on N incorporation. The T-CAP project has developed new populations to discover additional genes affecting N and water use efficiency using canopy spectral reflectance (CSR). In my laboratory we used this technology to identify a region of the 1RS rye chromosome translocation in wheat responsible for improved drought tolerance. The implementation of new genomic and phenotyping tools is helping wheat and barley breeders to ameliorate the negative impacts of climate change by improving the precision of their selection methods and by reducing the length of the selection cycles.