The T-CAP program in California is focused on the improvement of wheat resistance to rust pathogens and to drought.
In the area of stripe rust resistance we are evaluating a large collection of wheat germplasm under natural infections of stripe rust in the field. The same lines are being genotyped with 9000 molecular markers. We will use association mapping to discover genes that confer resistance to this pathogen. We have already discovered two genes and we are validating them and generating a high density map of these genes. In addition we are incorporating these two genes into our commercial wheat varieties.
In the area of drought tolerance our group is trying to map a gene from rye that confers resistance to drought in wheat. We have recombined the rye chromosome carrying this gene with the corresponding wheat chromosome and we are doing field and greenhouse experiments to map the gene. We will also do field experiments for an association mapping panel for drought tolerance. Experiments will be performed in Davis and Imperial Valley.
The PI for the T-CAP in California is originally from Argentina and speaks Spanish fluently, providing a perfect match for students with a Hispanic background and an interest in Agriculture.
Jorge Dubcovsky
