Exploring crop G x E towards climate-resilient cultivars
Research
Crop species have evolved an arsenal of strategies to cope with climatic variability. These strategies, which affect survival and productivity, are influenced by environmental factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation, solar radiation) and their interactions with genetically-conditioned plant traits. Our program studies these interactions and underlying processes to model their effects on plant behavior and ultimately to provide crop breeders with new tools for prediction under novel environmental scenarios.
Approach
Plant physiology
Process-based
modeling
We leverage genomics and physiology data to inform development and testing of process-based models. Our group collects data from controlled environments (e.g., the Purdue Controlled Environment Phenotyping Facility) and from field sites through a number of collaborations. Currently, our field-based collaborators include Duke Pauli (University of Arizona [cotton]), Amelia Henry (International Rice Research Institute [rice]), Georgia Eizenga (USDA Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Institute [rice]), and Matthew Reynolds (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center [wheat]). We also collaborate on several soybean projects with labs at our home institution, Purdue University.
Funding
Our program is currently funded by grants from NSF and USDA NIFA.