2018:
Activity 1.1: seedling growth, DNA extraction and quantification for all 1,200 inbred lines.
2019:
Activity 2.1: library preparations for GBS;
Activity 2.2: assign each inbred line to heterotic groups;
Activity 2.3: present preliminary results at the Maize Genetics Conference, St. Charlles, IL, USA, 2019;
Activity 2.4: predictive breeding; i.e., design crosses between genetically distant inbred lines, as a prerequisite for higher heterosis levels in the progenies/hybrids;
Activity 2.5: identify rare alleles, characteristic for the Romanian maize germplasm, which could explain phenotypes of interest (mainly, high protein-, fat- and fiber-content) and design crosses to incorporate such inbred lines into breeding programs;
Activity 2.6: preparation of the two manuscripts (target journals: PLoS Genetics; main topic: genetic diversity of the 1,200 inbred lines, and Theoretical Applied Genetics; main topic: rare alleles);
2020:
Activity 3.1: present the final results at the Maize Genetics Conference, 2020 (date and place TBD) and submission of the two manuscripts.
2018:
An additional 1,156 inbred lines were included in the analysis. Therefore, we have DNA available for 2,356 inbred lines now. These include samples from Rep. of Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Polland etc. These additions will increase our predictive power for breeding purposes, and will also help us in a better grouping of the Romanian lines in accordance to the international germplasm.
2019:
Delivered - multiplexed samples in Illumina libraries
Delivered - assignement to heterotic groups by NJ trees, ADMIXTURE and PCA analyses
"Preliminary results from the GBS analysis of 2,236 inbred maize lines in Eastern Europe" - abstract.
Delivered - new hybrids have been generated in the filed, based on the data provided by our project.
Delivered - 200 inbred lines originating from local populations show a clear separation from the international standards in all the analyses performed, as proof of their unique genetic background and potential for breeding.
Please see the "End of year reports" - end of section 2020, for details.
2020:
Due to the COVID19 pandemic, the Maize Genetics Conference was cancelled.
Oral presentation - Webinar series: National bioinformatics communities in ELIXIR - D. Postolache and M. Miclaus "Exploring genetic diversity in Romanian forest species and annual crops with High-Throughput Sequencing Techniques."
Oral presentation at the Bucharest University, as outreach activity within the Conference Series "Science for all".