Improving winter hardiness in wheat using genomic technologies

小麦(Triticum aestivum L.)是一种广泛适应的作物，生长在从斯堪的纳维亚半岛和俄罗斯的北纬67度到阿根廷的北纬45度，包括热带和亚热带高海拔地区的广泛环境中(费尔德曼，1995年)。这种广泛的适应在很大程度上是由于小麦对低温的耐受性。冬小麦与春小麦不同，它需要在一段时间内暴露在低温(春化)下才能开花。它的产量通常比春小麦高，出于许多原因，从更容易的管理实践到更有利于环境和有益的种植制度的组成部分，受到许多种植者和农学家的青睐。然而，成功的冬小麦品种是能够耐受低至零下20摄氏度的温度的品种，通常是通过寒冷的鼓掌过程获得的。这项研究旨在使用各种新的方法来研究耐寒性和冬季硬化的不同方面。我们将尝试更好地理解受春化需要影响的抗寒性的遗传学。这将包括我们试图识别小麦基因组中的基因及其区域。我们还将试图了解控制冬小麦植株这一重要特征的生理机制。我们希望能够表征冬小麦的广泛遗传多样性，以确定它们对寒冷处理的反应。然后，我们将研究一组选定的小麦基因型，看看它们如何与环境和管理相互作用。这一研究成果有望为植物育种工作者提供新的工具，帮助他们在育种计划中更有效地进行抗寒性选择。更好地了解抗寒性的生理机制有望帮助种植者做出更明智的管理决策，如选择品种和播种时间。

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a widely adapted crop, grown across a wide range of environments from 67º N in Scandinavia and Russia to 45º S in Argentina, including elevated regions in the tropics and sub-tropics (Feldman, 1995). Most of this wide adaptation is due to wheat's tolerance to cold temperatures. Winter wheat, unlike spring wheat, requires to be exposed to cold temperature (vernalization) for a period of time, for it to flower. It often yields more than spring wheat and for many reasons ranging from easier management practices to being more environment friendly and beneficial component of the cropping system is favoured by many growers and agronomists. However, a successful variety of winter wheat is the one that can tolerate sub-zero temperatures, as low as -20 C, often acquired through a process of cold acclamation. This research is designed to study different aspects of cold tolerance and winter hardening using a variety of novel approaches. We will attempt to better understand the genetics of winter hardiness as influenced by the need for vernalization. This will include our attempt to identify the genes and their region in the wheat genome. We will also attempt to understand the physiological mechanisms that control this important characteristic of the winter wheat plant. We expect to be able to characterize a wide range of genetic diversity in winter wheat for winter hardiness, their response to cold treatment. We will then examine a selected set of these wheat genotypes for how they interact with environment and management. The outcome of this research is expected to provide novel tools for plant breeders, assisting them in making more efficient selection for winter hardiness in their breeding program. A better understanding of the physiology of winter hardiness is expected to help the growers making more informed management decisions such as choice of varieties and planting time.