Supporting Future Wheat Improvement Underpinned By Novel Genetic Diversity For Root Traits

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the UK's most important crop, and ensuring its efficient production underpins food security around the world. While the wheat root system is a key component of overall plant architecture and crop performance, due to the inherent complications in studying below ground structures, relatively little is known about the genetic and gene regulatory pathways that modulate it. The aim of this PhD is to develop knowledge related to root system architectures that could be directly selected for and their effect on efficient crop performance, nutrient uptake and interaction with agricultural environment, in particular working towards a sustainable agricultural model. Recent wheat germplasm, genetic and genomic resource development (Adamski et al. 2020, eLIFE, 9:e55646), combined with advances in root phenotyping protocols (Ober, Alahmad, Cockram, et al. 2021, Theor Appl Genet, 134:1645-62), provide powerful tools with which to address fundamental and applied components of this knowledge gap. This studentship will exploit such resources to investigate, at the genetic, gene network and physiological level, the control of root system architecture traits and their impact on plant performance. Research will focus around the following hypotheses:
1) Extreme wheat root phenotypes will provide entry points to understanding the genes and gene regulatory networks that control root architecture.
2) Novel sources of genetic variation for root architecture will be tractable for genetic analysis using wheat germplasm that incorporates genomic regions from wheat relatives.