Specific goal: An understanding of the key mechanisms involved in complex traits and their interaction with the environment.

Outputs:

1. Accurate phenotyping protocols for roots, salinity and transpiration efficiency
2. Mechanism identified for salinity tolerance in all the crops
3. Large phenotyping platform for root traits in 4 crops

The development of molecular genetics has increasingly deepened the gap between the knowledge of the genotype and the understanding of the phenotype. While there is now a lot of knowledge on gene sequence, regulation and function, a lot less is known about how these genes act and interact to result in a metabolic or physiological process, and eventually a phenotype. Accurate phenotyping remains the key to the use of molecular tools for crop improvement. Therefore, an accurate phenotype requires first an understanding of the major mechanisms that would govern the phenotype. A proper understanding of these mechanisms would have several immediate benefits. (i) It would open the door to the identification of the genes involved in that mechanism. (ii) It would greatly enhance the understanding of GxE interaction and therefore the choice of QTLs for use in MAS. (iii) It would improve the quality and precision of phenotyping (to the benefit of MAS or transgenic product evaluation). The plant material that will be used to understand the key mechanisms would involve transgenic materials, gene bank material including wild relatives and RILs.