Madhav Sudebi

Biological Sciences: Agricultural Sciences - MS

Research Topic: Developing C.ficifolium as model plant to study the Chenopodium quinoa genome

Chenopodium quinoa (Quinoa) is a widely popular plant consumed for its nutritious grains. It has an excellent ability to tolerate drought and saline soils. However, due to production constraining traits such as excessive branching, proneness to lodging (bending over of plants), susceptibility to disease and sensitivity to a higher temperature, quinoa fails to adapt to Northern New England region. My research focuses on studying locally adapted ancestral plant of quinoa i.e. C.ficifolium, as a model to study quinoa genome and identify genes associated with traits of interest. My research activities include phenotyping different genotypes of C.ficifolium, hybrid formation, development of segregating F2 population, genome sequence analysis and development of molecular markers, linkage mapping, and Marker-Trait Association, and In-vitro propagation of C.ficifolium plants.