Genetic Dissection of Seed Priming

Seed and seedling vigour are key agricultural traits impacting seed germination and seedling emergence, but also highly complex and challenging to achieve. The project is aiming to know how seed priming treatments boost the vigour of seeds and seedlings especially under stress conditions. It is known that priming effects are highly variable depending on diverse factors such as the plant genotype. So the project is focused on understanding how seed and seedling vigour are controlled at the genetic level in response to seed priming that is aimed to overcome drought stress. Using a collection of annual spring oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) pureline accessions, genetic markers linked to priming-induced seed/seedling vigour-related traits will be identified. These markers will aid in tailoring breeding efforts for oilseed rape. The project is conducted within DSV’s Seed Technology Team at the Centre for Phenotyping in Asendorf, Lower Saxony, Germany.

The objectives of the project are:

• To investigate the phenotypic variation in osmopriming response under unstressed and drought stress conditions
• To uncover seed osmopriming QTLs and candidate genes through Genome Wide Association Studies.
• To identify transcriptomic changes associated with seed osmopriming under unstressed and drought stress conditions via RNA-seq analysis
• To evaluate vigor traits and transgenerational inheritance of osmopriming effects in offspring.
• To examine the phenotypic response of selected accessions to biostimulants from BioAtlantis.

Active collaborations with partners at the University of Galway (Ireland), University of Göttingen (Germany), BioAtlantis (Ireland) and others to get not only specific training in molecular approaches but also intellectual input that will be valuable to the progress of the project