Aberdeen, Idaho, USA
January 21, 2011
A $750,000 project to analyze the water- and fertilizer-use efficiency of 3,000 wheat and barley lines will occupy University of Idaho wheat breeder Jianli Chen for the next five years at the university's Aberdeen Research and Extension Center.
"It will be a big job because we will be growing three plots of each line, so we will be monitoring 1,800 plots for each of the next five years," Chen said.
The project is part of a $25 million USDA-funded project led by University of California at Davis wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky to develop new varieties of wheat and barley to help farmers prepare for climate change.
Chen’s preliminary research into drought stress supported by Idaho Wheat Commission helped her to become a key part in the grant to do phenotypic screening for water and nitrogen use efficiency.
Aberdeen provides a perfect location for the project, she said. Because the region's rainfall averages 10 inches a year, cereal grain production in southern Idaho relies on irrigation. Simulating drought conditions simply means turning off or reducing the water supply.
She will focus on the holdings of the National Small Grains Collection, which is maintained by the Agricultural Research Service at Aberdeen. The collection holds germplasm gathered by researchers worldwide since about 1897.
As a genebank, the Aberdeen collection represent the global diversity of small grains, including wheat, barley, oats, rice rye, triticale and various wild relatives.
Support from the USDA-ARS Special Collaborative Agreement Grant allowed Chen to prepare for the new project by starting to grow the wheat and barley lines in 2009 to increase the amount of seed needed for her research.
Chen’s project is a symbol of great collaboration between University of Idaho and USDA-ARS. J. Michael Bonman, research leader for the ARS unit at Aberdeen, and Harold Bockelman, curator of the National Small Grains Collection and ARS supervisory agronomist, in Aberdeen also will be part of Chen’s project.
The National Association of Wheat Growers applauded the large scale project, calling it a significant investment of public funds in work critical to the industry's continued profitability. The five-year project will include 55 scientists from 21 states.
The project will be the first effort in the genebank's history to measure the water- and nitrogen efficiency of various wheat and barley lines in the collection, Chen said.
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