Updated December 10, 2019:
By drawing upon USB’s previous investment for genotyping the USDA germplasm collection, we have been able to combine that genomic information with measurements we have made on 373 accessions for four critical traits associated with drought tolerance: canopy wilting, canopy temperature, water use efficiency (using the ration of carbon-13 to carbon-12, d13C), and N2 fixation. The combination of the genetic information with our measurements has allowed us to identify multiple DNA regions associated with each of these traits and that can be used to transfer these traits to high-yielding lines. This combined information has also allowed us to delve deeply into understanding how these four traits function and how these traits are impacted in different environments. In 2019, we were successful in combining germplasm selected for slow canopy wilting with cool canopy temperature and for d13C with N2 fixation; we are poised in 2020 to combine all four of these traits into a single genetic background. For the d13C trait, we have advanced lines that will be evaluated in multi-state yield tests in 2020.