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INVESTIGATOR: Kresovich, S.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
CLEMSON UNIVERSITY
CLEMSON, SOUTH CAROLINA 29634

GENOMIC AND BREEDING FOUNDATIONS FOR BIOENERGY SORGHUM HYBRIDS

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The overall goal of this effort is to build the germplasm, breeding, genetic, and genomic foundations necessary to rapidly and specifically advance cellulosic sorghum as a bioenergy and chemical feedstock. Sorghum is one of the few crops that can fit all of the proposed approaches for renewable fuel production. i.e. from starch, sugar, and/or cellulose. It is productive, highly adaptable to a range of environments and production systems,highly efficient in using water and nutrient inputs, and includes a range of forms able to be grown as either annuals or perennials. We define cellulosic sorghum as an annual or perennial form that is bredand selected to maximize carbon (energy) accumulation per unit time, land area, and/or production input (water, nutrients, pesticides, etc.). Phenotypically, it likely will be extremely tall, heavy tillering,large-barreled, dry stemmed, photoperiod-sensitive material that aggressively ratoons (regrows following harvest) in environments with milder winters (the southeastern and southcentral U.S.).

OBJECTIVES: The overall objective of this proposed research is to build the germplasm, breeding, genetics, and genomics foundations necessary to rapidly and specifically advance cellulosic sorghum as a bioenergy and chemical feedstock. Sorghum is one of the few agricultural crop candidates that can fit all of the proposed approaches for renewable fuel production from starch, sugar, and/or cellulose. It is highly adaptable to a range of environments and production systems, highly efficient in using water and nutrient inputs, and represents a range of forms (starch, sweet, and cellulosic types) able to be grown as either an annual or perennial. For this proposed investigation, we define cellulosic sorghum as an annual or perennial form of sorghum that is bred and selected to maximize carbon accumulation per unit time, land area, and/or production input (including water, nutrients, pesticides, etc.). Phenotypically, it likely will be an extremely tall, heavy tillering, large-barreled dry stems, photoperiod-sensitive material that exhibits the potential to aggressively ratoon (regrow following harvest) in environments with milder winters (the southeastern and southcentral U.S.). The essential, specific objectives of the proposed research are: (1)to develop ten nested association mapping populations (NAMs) and a diversity panel necessary to dissect the genetic bases of carbon accumulation, partitioning, and metabolic pathways of cellulosic sorghum; (2)to phenotype these NAMs and diversity panel for patterns of carbon accumulation, partitioning, and associated metabolic pathways and to correlate these traits with DNA sequence and genic variation that will underlie future breeding and genetic studies of cellulosic sorghum; (3)to lay the genomic foundation (based on DNA sequence generation and analysis, and pipeline and database development) for integrating genomic selection and other genomics-based strategies into cellulosic sorghum breeding programs for energy and chemicals; and (4)to identify and create five cellulosic male-sterile (A lines), maintainer (B lines), and restorer (R lines) germplasm necessary to exploit heterosis specifically targeted at energy and chemical feedstocks.