CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT: ACCELERATED INTROGRESSION OF SYNTHETIC HEXAPLOID DERIVED DIVERSITY INTO AN APPLIED HARD WINTER WHEAT BREEDING PROGRAM

The goal of this project is to reveal brackish water as a value-added product that increases the production of beneficial human health-promoting secondary metabolites by native halophytes.Objective 1: Evaluate biomass production and salt uptake of Atriplex canescens, A. lentiformis, and Lepidium alyssoides irrigated with brackish groundwater and desalination concentrate. Establish a brackish irrigation water:greenhouse production system and identify value and limitations of these impaired water sources.Objective 2: Assess yield and bioavailability of secondary metabolites (total phenolics, antioxidant activity, and glucosinolates) in A. canescens, A. lentiformis, and L. alyssoides using the greenhouse production system, spectrophotometry, and high performance liquid chromatography.Objective 3: Perform broadband characterization of specific phenolics, glucosinolates, and potential phytotoxins in A. canescens, A. lentiformis, and L. alyssoides from the greenhouse production system, whileusing ultra performance liquid chromatography and ultra high resolution mass specrometry.Objective 4: Construct simple variable cost:economic return projections for the production, harvesting, processing, extraction, and analysis of phenolics and glucosinolates in A. canescens, A. lentiformis, and L. alyssoides grown in the greenhouse production system.Objective 5: Hold a webinar for local and regional greenhouse and nursery producers, herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, and herbalists to report experimental findings and their implications for the phytomedicinal products industry, to collect feedback on information learned, and to strengthen the stakeholder and industry components for the next grant proposal submission.