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Project Mapping adaptation of barley to drought environments

- Barley is the pridominant crop in the driest land areas throughout the Mediterranean, Being annually grown on 15 million ha. Grain Yields are particularly affected by drought. The main objective of this proposal is to understand the genetic and physiological dynamics and processes underlying adaptation to drought.

- Novel materials will be developed and studied across a wide range of Mediterranean drought-prone environments throughout Europe, North Africa and West Asia. Contemporary genetics and plant physioloty tools will be used in order to formulate a germplasm improvement strategy for water use efficiency under rainfed Mediterranean environments.

Project number ICA3-CT-2002-10026
Subject(s) WATER DEMAND , no translation available
Acronym MABDE
Geographical coverage Morocco, Jordan, Italy, France, Algeria, Spain, Turkey, Syria
Budget (in €) n/a
Programme INCO MED (FP5)
Web site http://www.iamz.ciheam.org/en/pages/contenidos/investigacion/info_detallada/trigoduro.htm
Objectives - The main objective of this proposal is to understand the genetic and physiological dynamics and processes underlying (1) barley domestication and adaptation to drought and (2) intensive barley breeding carried out in the last century. Contemporary genetics and plant physiology tools will be used in order to formulate a germplasm improvement strategy for water use efficiency under rainfed Mediterranean environments.

- Specific objectives:

    * Characterise and use a series of adaptation mechanisms to cope with drought:

          o Capture and identify naturally occurring variation for adaptation to arid Mediterranean environments at both the nuclear and cytoplasmic level.

          o Understand basic underlying physiological mechanisms of adaptation to drought, resulting in improved water use efficiency, over and above phenology.

          o Build on competencies in traditional mapping that take advantage of recombination in several backgrounds over many generations to identify and confirm candidate genomic regions associated with yield under drought.

          o Assess the role of candidate genes for adaptation emerging from genomic and physiological studies of model and related species.

          o Develop new integrative models for GE and QTLxE based on extensive multilocation yield data supplemented with genetical, physiological and environmental information.

    * Develop new genetic material to test and validate the role of nuclear and cytoplasmic genes in adaptation to drought.

Results - The joint effort of the consortium will result in the generation of extensive genotypic and phenotypical data sets to be used for genetic and association studies in barley breeding for drought-prone areas throughout the Mediterranean. This would be the single largest effort to address such a critical issue, including more than 500 genotypes characterised with a common set of molecular markers, and grown and studied across more than 20 experiments over sites and years.

- This study will deliver new tools, targets and novel genetic materials for the study of adaptation of barley to drought.

- Appropriate statistical methods for assessing marker-trait associations will be assessed for various types of response variables and marker systems.

- Appropriate statistical methods for integrated (analytical) Genotype x Environment interaction analysis.

- Target regions of the genome that can be used to search germplasm collections for novel but natural variants of potential benefit in breeding for drought-prone environments.

- Formulation of a germplasm improvement strategy for water use efficiency under rainfed Mediterranean environments.
Period [01/01/2003 - 31/12/2005]

Partners

  • INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR ADVANCED MEDITERRANEAN AGRONOMIC STUDIES
    MEDITERRANEAN AGRONOMIC INSTITUTE OF ZARAGOZA
    Coordinator acts as project coordinator
    Type
    Country Spain
    Web site http://www.iamz.ciheam.org
    Contact Mr. VALLS Miguel,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: , 34 976 716 001
    Email: iamz@iamz.ciheam.org
  • Institut Technique des Grandes Cultures
    Type
    Country Algeria
    Web site http://itgc.entreprises-dz.com/
    Contact Mr. Kamel Feliachi,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: 213 (021) 52.44.31 / 32, 213 (021) 52.35.29
    Email: itgc@entreprises-dz.com
  • Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
    Crop Physiology Laboratory
    Type
    Country Morocco
    Web site http://www.inra.org.ma/
    Contact Mr. Hamid Narjisse,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: +212 037770955 / +212 037772639, +212 037770049
    Email: contact@inra.org.ma
  • Ministry of Agriculture
    Rainfed Agricultural Research Program
    Type
    Country Jordan
    Web site http://www.moa.gov.jo/
    Contact Mr. Abdel Nabi Fardous,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: (+962) 6-5686151, (+962) 6-5686310
    Email: Agri@moa.gov.jo
  • The Central Research Institute for Field Crops
    Plant Breeding Department
    Type
    Country Turkey
    Contact Mr. Hüseyin Tosun,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: (312) 287 89 57, 287 33 34, 287 33 35, (312) 287 89 58
    Email:
  • Tishreen University
    Laboratory Of Molecular Genetic - Faculty Of Agriculture
    Type
    Country Syria
    Web site http://www.tishreen.shern.net/
    Contact Mr. Saed Eldin Kherfan,
    Position:
    Phone/fax: ,
    Email: bacc@tishreen.shern.net
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