Sporobolus spp. as Resources for Crop Improvement in Poaceae

In the American southwest, crops’ exposure to abiotic stress threaten agricultural sustainability.  Food security from regional to international markets which rely on its production are consequently impacted.  New tools are needed to improve crops' environmental stress tolerance to ensure long-term sustainability.  North American-native grasses species have evolved the capacity to thrive in habitats where these stresses persist.  Such ‘extremophilic’ species can provide critical opportunities for improvement of crops’ water use efficiency and productivity under drought.  Among these, the Sporobolus genus is host to grasses closely related to grain crops such as corn, wheat, rice, and barley (Poaceae family).  Found in Southwest deserts, S. nealleyi is considered a gypsum-endemic grass.   Such ‘gypsophiles’, may be able to extract bound water from pure gypsum rock during periods of drought.  Establishing genetic information in this species is necessary to determine the underpinnings of its extreme drought tolerance and gypsum-endemism.  A long term sequencing, annotation and gene-discovery effort is being instigated among Sporobolus spp. to address this need and identify novel strategies for crop improvement in Poaceae.  Karyotyping is underway to reveal genome size and ploidy beginning in S. nealleyi.  Based on this, draft genomes are being acquired with a combination of next-generation sequencing platforms.  Results are expected to reveal genetic mechanisms responsible for the extreme drought, salt and heat tolerance among these species.  These are expected to be leveraged for crop improvement in arid agricultural regions possibly enabling maintenance or reclamation of productivity from marginal arable land.