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SUMMARY:Phenomics of stomata and WUE in bioenergy sorghum - John Ferguson\
 , Kromdijk group
DTSTART:20210225T150000Z
DTEND:20210225T160000Z
UID:TALK154900@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:85030
DESCRIPTION:Water use efficiency (WUE) is a key target for improving crop 
 sustainability. At the basic level\, WUE is defined as the exchange of H2O
  and CO2 between the leaf and the atmosphere\, which is regulated by the a
 perture and patterning of stomata. In sorghum and other C4 species\, mecha
 nistic modelling suggests that reductions in stomatal conductance may achi
 eve cost-free improvements to WUE and facilitate the cultivation of bioene
 rgy sorghum in marginal lands.\n\nThrough manipulating a putative negative
  regulator of stomatal lineage initiation\, we have reduced stomatal condu
 ctance and improved WUE in sorghum. Despite the relative success of this a
 pproach\, our knowledge of the regulation of stomatal patterning in C4 cro
 ps is still poor. Improving our understanding of this process is constrain
 ed by a phenotyping bottleneck. To this end\, we have developed a high-thr
 oughput phenotyping platform to measure gas exchange and leaf structural t
 raits. This platform was employed to quantify natural variation in WUE-ass
 ociated traits in >800 field grown sorghum varieties across two growing se
 asons. We utilised both genetic sequence and transcript variation to perfo
 rm joint GWAS-TWAS analyses to identify candidate genes underlying the obs
 erved variation. As a complimentary approach\, we additionally developed a
  high-throughput methodology for measuring WUE at the biomass level in the
  same sorghum diversity panel. Both the high WUE accessions identified and
  the candidate genes outlined represent a key resource for future sorghum 
 improvement.\n\nContact reception@plantsci.cam.ac.uk for a Zoom link prior
  to a talk if you are not on our mailing list. Due to having to go onine\,
  we are restricting the talks to University of Cambridge and alumni to kee
 p them as informal as possible.
LOCATION:Online
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