U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research: Development of Physiological Selection Criteria for Breeding Drought Resistant Genotypes of Grain Sorghum

这个美国-墨西哥奖将支持俄亥俄州牛津的迈阿密大学的Alfredo Huerta教授和墨西哥塔毛利帕斯自治大学的Sergio Castro-Nava教授之间的合作项目。研究人员打算研究基于生理学的选择标准，以开发抗旱品种或高粱杂交种。第二个目标是进一步了解植物的抗旱机制。实验将在塔毛利帕斯州农业研究站的田间和俄亥俄州牛津大学植物系的温室中进行。水的供应是全球作物生产力的主要限制因素。在墨西哥的塔毛利帕斯州，高粱是一种主要作物，该州几乎占墨西哥高粱总产量的一半。塔毛利帕斯州生产的高粱有四分之三是作为旱作物种植的，因此作物在发育的某个阶段很可能受到水分胁迫，结果产量很低。目前在开发适应当地的高粱品种和杂交种方面的进展并没有集中在耐旱性上。植物病理学家（Huerta）和育种家（Castro）之间的这种合作将导致耐旱生理学和代谢的结果，这将有助于关注这些作物的新方向和可能的新选择标准。

This U.S.-Mexico award will support a collaborative project between Professor Alfredo Huerta of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio and Professor Sergio Castro-Nava of the Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Mexico. The investigators intend to study physiologically based selection criteria for development of drought resistant varieties or hybrids of grain sorghum. A second objective is to further basic understanding of drought resistance mechanisms in plants. Experiments will be conducted in the field at the agricultural research station in Tamaulipas and in greenhouses at the Department of Botany in Oxford, Ohio. Water availability is the major limiting factor for crop productivity worldwide. In the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, grain sorghum is a major crop and the state contributes almost half of the total sorghum produced in Mexico. Three quarters of the sorghum produced in Tamaulipas is cultivated as a rainfed crop, thus exposing the crop to a high probability of water stress during some part of its development, with resultant very low yields. Current advances in the development of locally adapted varieties and hybrids of sorghum have not focused on drought tolerance. This collaboration between a plant pathologist (Huerta) and a breeder (Castro) will lead to results on the physiology and metabolism of drought tolerance that should help to focus on new directions and possible new selection criteria for these crops.