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

The NCSU breeding program is the primary purveyor of Virginia-type peanut varieties for the Virginia-Carolinas (VC) production region. The annual estimated losses caused by leaf spot provide the necessary justification for exploring more efficient and effective avenues for improving leaf spot resistance in late-generation families and advanced breeding lines. This proposal addresses two priorities of the Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production Program Area (Priority Code A1141). Firstly, it is a public breeding effort to improve crop productivity, efficiency, quality, and performance in a regional US farming system (Virginia-type peanut grown in the sandy soils of the VC region). Secondly, it aims to phenotypically dissect and promote the use of high-throughput methods for the improvement of leaf spot disease resistance in cultivated peanut. Additionally, this proposal aligns with industry goals for improved peanut cultivars. The major contributors to peanut research in the United States identify leaf spot resistance as their highest priority. New germplasm will be developed with enhanced traits of interest. NCSU peanut breeding program has an excellent record of cultivar development. This proposal aims to solve a key regional and national biotic constraint to conventional peanut production by increasing efficiency, profitability and sustainability through the reduction or elimination of costly fungicide applications.Our long-term goal is to shorten breeding timelines while improving leaf spot resistance and other agronomically important traits in cultivated peanuts, with technologically advanced methods, at the field-level scale. The project will accomplish the proposed selection pipeline through the following phenotyping objectives within the NCSU advanced breeding line testing program through the following specific objectives:Low-throughput phenotyping of advanced breeding lines using tissue and low-resolution aerial imaging.High-throughput phenotyping for leaf spot classification and quantification from high-resolution aerial imaging for protocol development.