PEANUT VARIETY AND QUALITY EVALUATION HARNESSING MULTISCALE DATA FOR TRAIT PREDICTION TO SUPPORT CULTIVAR RELEASE DECISIONS

The overall goal of this proposal is to ensure the release of climate-resilient peanut cultivars to the producers of the Virginia and Carolinas (VC) region to allow them maintain competitiveness in the marketplace. This will be realized through evaluation of the advanced breeding lines within the well-established Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation (PVQE) multi-state program with the addition of new high-throughput methods and traits for accurate selection ofearly maturing peanut cultivars withtolerance to heat and dry conditions, andresistance to southern corn rootworm (SCRW), using "smart" technologies and AI algorithms. Once validated, these new methods will be implemented in future PVQE testing. Specifically, our goal is toimprove and diversify the coordinated efforts of the multi-state PVQE project to help selection of improved peanut cultivars for the VC region and to meet the industry requirements for quantity and quality of peanut. To achieve this goal, the current proposal has three specific objectives:Objective 1. Develop and validate models to estimate peanut maturity for implementation in future PVQE testing.Objective 2. Develop and validate models to estimate peanut heat and drought tolerance for implementation in future PVQE testing.Objective 3. Develop and validate a greenhouse/lab assay and models to estimate pod SCRW injury for implementation in future PVQE testing.