Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Deployment of Molecular Durum Breeding to the Senegal Basin : Capacity Building to Face Global Warming

Pays/Région : Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and Sweden

Date : 1 January 2014–31 December 2017

Identifiant : 2013-06500_VR

Présentation
Durum wheat genetics and breeding research will be undertaken in Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and Sweden to identify water use efficient durum wheat germplasm with enhanced adaptation to drought and heat for further use in cultivar development aiming adoption by local African dryland farmers, mining alleles capable to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming (specifically drought and heat), and deploy these alleles for enhancing adaptation of durum wheat to global warming into high yielding cultivars adapted to northwest Africa.

The proposed research involves the genotyping and phenotyping of durum wheat core collection, and the use of association mapping (based on linkage disequilibrium) for identifying marker genes related to traits enhancing adaptation to both drought- and heat-prone environments. Durum wheat breeders can directly employ this information to design targeted crosses to pyramid useful alleles within a single genotype and to estimate breeding values for applying genome wide-selection. High-yielding durum wheat cultivars will assure the maintenance of total grain produced, increase total proteins available for the diet, reduce water consumed, and provide means for crop rotation to rice, and offer options for a more diversified diet in northwest Africa. Local capacity strengthening will be also achieved by training a Mauritanian or a Senegalese student in a sandwich PhD program between the University of Rabat (Morocco), ICARDA and SLU.

Coordination : Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Partenaires : University of Rabat (Morocco), ICARDA and SLU

Financement : Swedish Research Council
Budget : 3,599,000 kr

Swecris project database