Trilateral FPP 2023: Future Proofing Plants through Enhancement of Yield Stability in Water-limited Environments

About This Grant

Water is a limiting resource for plant production worldwide, and mathematical models indicate that more frequent and longer drought periods will occur. Therefore, utilizing genotypes that produce consistent yields under fluctuating water availability (i.e., yield stability) is critical to ensure food security worldwide. The project team is utilizing maize lines currently used in U.S. maize breeding programs that exhibit a range of yield stability under drought conditions in multi-year field trials. We will use this material to screen for traits that are correlated with variation in yield stability and ultimately identify the genetic bases for yield stability. The information generated in this project will be valuable to public and private institutions that are striving to develop maize lines with high yield stability, as it will identify 1) germplasm that may be important for breeding to improve yield stability, and 2) traits that should be selected for to achieve high yield stability. The project is partnering with Bayer Crop Science, who have committed to support this project through their participation in capacity building. Bayer will provide professional and technical development opportunities for students, staff, and faculty. Reduced and/or erratic water availability will be an issue for most major crop species. Maize is an important system in which to identify and utilize the molecular and genetic mechanisms that underlie drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Because of the depth of genetic information available, knowledge gained in maize will lead to both a functional application to maize production and a better understanding of other cereal crop species responses to variable environments. Maize germplasm that is currently used in U.S. maize breeding programs have been identified that exhibit diverse levels of yield stability under drought conditions in multi-year field trials. The specific aims of this project are to: 1) estimate a large number of anatomical, morphological, and physiological traits in leaves, stems, and roots of maize that correlate with yield stability under water stress; 2) perform cell-specific transcriptome analyses to characterize molecular components of response systems in roots and leaves, and utilize metabolomic, ionomic, and root microbiota collections to identify specific metabolites, ions, and microbes important to water movement; and 3) validate the cellular and molecular bases for traits identified, including the microbiota, in a screen on selected materials to confirm phenotypic basis for yield stability. This award was funded as part of a lead agency opportunity between NSF, UKRI-BBSRC (U.K. Research and Innovation - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; Lead) and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/German Research Foundation) where NSF funds the U.S. investigator, UKRI-BBSRC funds the U.K. partner and DFG funds the German partner. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.