Hari Poudel

• Researcher at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Plant genebanks contain large numbers of germplasm accessions that likely harbor useful alleles or genes absent in commercial plant breeding programs. Broadening the genetic base of commercial alfalfa germplasm with these valuable genetic variations can be achieved by screening the extensive genetic diversity in germplasm collections and enabling m...

Pulses provide myriad health benefits and are advantageous in an environmental context as a result of their leguminous nature. However, phytopathogenic fungi, oomycetes and bacteria pose a substantial threat to pulse production, at times leading to crop failure. Unfortunately, existing disease management strategies often provide insufficient contro...

Crop height and biomass are the two important phenotyping traits to screen forage population types at local and regional scales. This study aims to compare the performances of multispectral and RGB sensors onboard drones for quantitative retrievals of forage crop height and biomass at very high resolution. We acquired the unmanned aerial vehicle (U...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is one of several grass species being bred for use as a biomass crop to support the biofuel industry. Increases in biomass yield are imperative to ensure that crops such as switchgrass can sustainably meet the needs of this industry. Genomic selection is one strategy that can accelerate breeding gains for complex t...

Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) ‐ grass or alfalfa ‐ sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) mixtures are commonly used for pastures in western Canada because of their high forage quality and their low risk of causing frothy bloat in grazing animals. However, the proportion of these two legumes declines in mixed forage stands over time. The objective...

Plant genebanks contain large numbers of accessions that likely harbor useful alleles or genes absent in commercial plant breeding programs. Broadening the genetic base of commercial alfalfa germplasm with these useful genetic variations can be accomplished by screening the extensive genetic diversity in germplasm collections and enabling maximal r...

Over the last decade, there has been a renewed interest in sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.), particularly among western Canadian forage and beef‐cattle producers. A major trigger has been the availability of new sainfoin cultivars with improved compatibility with alfalfa (Medicago sativa). These new cultivars in binary mixture with alfalfa si...

In the North-Central United States lowland ecotype switchgrass can increase yield by up to 50% compared to locally adapted but early-flowering cultivars. However, lowland ecotypes are not winter tolerant. The mechanism for winter damage is unknown but previously has been associated with late flowering time. This study investigated heading date (mea...

Rising emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are a key driver of climate change, which is predicted to have myriad detrimental consequences in coming years if not kept in check. Given the potency of CH4 in terms of trapping heat in the atmosphere in the short term, as well as...

Sainfoin is a highly nutritious non-bloating leguminous forage crop of temperate regions. Despite non-bloating properties, its use in pastures was limited due to low dry matter yield (DMY), lack of persistence in the mixed pasture, and slow regrowth. The paradigm then shifted when new sainfoin cultivars planted in mixtures with alfalfa reduced 98%...

Cold stress (CS) affects the survivability, geographical distribution, and yield stability of crops. Suitable management and agronomic practices can minimize the crop losses associated with cooler environments. However, agronomic practices alone can't support plants adequately to withstand the harsh cold. Therefore, exploring plants cold stress-res...

A sorghum bi-parental mapping population was evaluated under six different environments at Hays and Manhattan, Kansas, USA, in 2016 and 2017, to identify genomic regions controlling source-sink relationships. The population consisted of 210 recombinant inbred lines developed from US elite post-flowering drought susceptible (RTx430) and a known post...

High winter mortality limits biomass yield of lowland switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) planted in the northern latitudes of North America. Breeding of cold tolerant switchgrass cultivars requires many years due to its perennial growth habit and the unpredictable winter selection pressure that is required to identify winter‐hardy individuals. Ident...

Sod‐seeding of depleted pastures with non‐bloating legumes can be a low‐cost pasture rejuvenation strategy for ranchers in the North American prairies. A study was conducted to determine if sainfoin (Onobrychis vicifolia subsp. vicifolia) or cicer milkvetch (CMV) (Astragalus cicer L.) populations or cultivars (hereinafter populations) can be used t...

Development of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) as a sustainable biomass crop for conversion to bioenergy requires substantial increases in biomass yield. Because switchgrass is highly photoperiodic, one approach toward this goal is to collect germplasm populations from the Southern USA, then screen and select them in northern environments where t...

The lowland ecotype of switchgrass has generated considerable interest because of its higher biomass yield and late flowering characteristics compared to the upland ecotype. However, lowland ecotypes planted in northern latitudes exhibit very low winter survival. Implementation of genomic selection could potentially enhance switchgrass breeding for...

Low-temperature related abiotic stress is an important factor affecting winter survival in lowland switchgrass when grown in northern latitudes in the United States. A better understanding of the genetic architecture of freezing tolerance in switchgrass will aid the development of lowland switchgrass cultivars with improved winter survival. The obj...

The genetic map of 1618 markers in 18 linkage groups. The physical distance is in base pairs (bp) and map distance are in Kosambi map units (cM). The markers are grouped by chromosomes.

Best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) of phenotypic data for all traits used in QTL analysis. LT-50 are in °C while all other traits are measured as the number (n). NA, Not available because the genotype was dead in field, [.] = The BLUP was not estimable.

The minimum air temperature during the acclimation period recorded in the nearby station (Madison Dane County Regional Airport, WI, United States, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov). The horizontal dashed line represents the freezing point below which the rhizomes in cold frames were covered with plastic tarps.

The genotype data of selected 1618 markers and 341 F2 progenies used in QTL analysis. The genotype are coded as cross pollinated (CP) format based on JoinMap 4.1 (Van Ooijen, 2006). < hkxhk > : F2 type, segregating 1:2:1, hh and kk mean homozygous to each of the grandparents Summer or Ellsworth and hk means heterozygous. < lmxll > and < nnxnp > : b...