Research project Unlocking genetic variation for climate adaptation of crops

Population genetic methods that identify genetic variants associated with environmental variation could efficiently identify adaptive genetic variation for crop improvement in collections of crop wild relatives.

Here, we will assess the utility of such an approach in a proof-of-concept project focusing on wild relatives of wheat and flax, which are promising sources of genetic variation for climate adaptation. We will focus on genetic variation for drought tolerance, as these crops are grown in regions where drought will be more frequent in the future due to climate change. We will first identify drought tolerance loci and drought adapted accessions using population genetic environmental association analyses, and then validate our findings experimentally.

The results of the project are broadly important for more efficient utilization of crop wild relative collections to unlock wild genetic variation for food security and fibre production in a changing climate.