Objectives

Project Objectives

• Development of high performance crops with improved yield, nutrient use efficiency, nutritional quality and tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses

• Establishing high throughput phenotyping/genotyping (SSR and SNP marker) platforms enabling breeding new crop cultivars

• Bio-prospecting for novel genes and bio-molecules of agricultural importance

• Developing quality manpower in biotechnology and bioinformatics enabling Tamil Nadu the most preferred destination for Biotech R&D industries in Asia and to provide research platform for post-doctoral researchers to carry-out research on innovative ideas.

Project Strategy

• Centre of excellence in molecular breeding (CMB) will provide a platform to undertake precision breeding activities for the improvement of the major agricultural and horticultural crops of the state

• Genes underlying the character variations associated with drought, salt, submergence, heat tolerance, virus resistance, fungal and bacterial disease resistance in cereals and nutritive values will be mapped using genomic principles

• The DNA level variation deciphered at the level of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) will be exploited as genetic markers for carrying out selection of the desired genotypes

• Breeding populations will be synthesized using global and local donors and selection on the basis of functional markers in the form of SNPs would deliver agronomically and nutritively superior crop cultivars