description
- Growth in cereals is tempered by the difference between day and night temperatures, and seasonal drivers of developmental transitions. In the spring, wheat seedlings are exposed to variable expectations on these partially predictable temperature oscillations. We have uncovered key thermometers and thermal responders and have isolated allelic variation of these genes in bread wheat. Our preliminary work has explored how their expression-levels are associated to heritable responses to heading-date variation in field-grown plants. You would generate combinations field-ready mutants. These would be examined for seasonal-trait physiology under controlled and field studies to associate growth and reproductive timing in response to changes in temperature. This predicts how such genes generate "useful" developmental changes relevant to sowing time relative to the seasonal growth one can expect in the Spring. Additionally you would generate a comprehensive phylogenetic and population-based structure of these genes in the hundreds of wheat lines we have generated expression-based transcriptomes. This would be used to perform quantitative tests in these plants in field- grown and stress generated protocols to understand further the role of seasonality genetics. Tuning wheat growth and flowering in response to expected changes in the seasonal and daily variation in temperature provides urgently needed climate resilience.