Graduate Student King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Chenopodium quinoa is a semi-domesticated crop that is primarily grown for its highly nutritious seeds. In addition to the nutritional value, quinoa also represents great potential for expansion of cultivation into areas currently unavailable for agriculture due to a large natural diversity and natural tolerance to various adverse environmental conditions, including a high natural salinity tolerance. For a global expansion, agriculturally important traits need to be identified and targeted for crop improvement. Results from replicated field trials in an arid climate across two years and around 140 quinoa accessions with control and salt treatments, will be presented. The genetic architecture of relevant traits is also assessed through genome-wide association studies. The trials presented are the first assessment of the variability of a large panel of quinoa accessions in the response to salinity of plants grown to maturity.