SP 11: Drought stress tolerant wheat

Project manager: Dr. Lorenz Hartl / Dr. Manuel Spannagl
Scientific staff: Sepideh Jafarian

The tolerance of crop varieties for abiotic stress factors is exceedingly meaningful for a sustainable production in agriculture. Next to maize winter wheat is the most important agricultural crop in Bavaria. Through continuous breeding efforts are being made to adapt and improve the varieties to the changing environmental conditions caused by the ongoing climate change, as much as possible. These drought stress events, which are not easy to predict with regard to their long term occurrence as well as the developmental stage of the wheat, represent an enormous challenge for the selection of the most suitable lines. The aim of this project is it to identify the molecular factors and genes responsible for drought stress tolerance and to make them available for the selection process in the Bavarian wheat breeding. Stress tolerant lines will be studied using multispectral 3D imaging systems in measurement chambers to reveal global phenotypic traits of the plant as well as optical properties of their leaves. Also the root system will be studied. Particularly in combination with the genomic selection those factors will become important additions to the selection model.

Poster kick off meeting (German)             
Project description kick off meeting (German)