This work will be led by partners at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)

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The overall aim is to phenotype bread and durum wheat panels for root traits that can have a beneficial impact in soil structure and nitrogen cycling and uptake. The WISH-ROOTS will screen two collections of wheat for root morphological parameters and root exudates.

 

Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) selected from preliminary data will be phenotyped and the data will be used  to link target root traits with regions of the wheat genome.

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The Germplasm Resource Unit (JIC) and UniBo will provide bread and durum wheat germplasm collections as well as RILs obtained from crosses of landraces and modern cultivars.

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Collections will include landraces and sequenced lines previously highlighted by their ability to control nitrification in the rhizosphere, landrace selections previously assessed on field conditions over the last three years and preliminary assessed for agronomic value, biomass production and root traits .

 

The novel large Rhizotron facility of FZJ with up to 896 plants growing in parallel and vastly automated handling will be employed and will allow state-of-the-art detailed, dynamic root phenotyping.

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