Project properties
Title Breeding improved industrial hemp varieties to valorise hemp fibres for biobased materials
Group Plant Breeding, Laboratory of
Project type thesis
Credits 24-36
Supervisor(s) Dr. Elma Salentijn and Prof.Dr. Luisa Trindade
Examiner(s) Prof.Dr. Luisa Trindade, Dr. Elma Salentijn
Contact info elma.salentijn@wur.nl, luisa.trindade@wur.nl
Begin date 2022/01/01
End date 2025/12/31
Description Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is a promising crop for the production of fibres which are increasingly desired by industry e.g. for plant-based building materials, composite materials and textiles. The leaves and seeds, currently side stream, contain valuable components that can then be converted into various products for a biobased-economy. A major bottleneck in hemp production is the uneven development of plants within the crop due to the instability of sex-expression of hemp. The resulting crop heterogeneity can cause severe problems ranging from issues with mechanical harvesting and bad fibre quality, to problems with the production of certified sowing seeds and poor seed quality. To accelerate the development of improved and sexually more stable hemp varieties, generating genotyping tools and a better understanding of the effect of environmental factors are indispensable.
The thesis will comprise one or more of the following activities:
1) Phenotype sex-expression of hemp varieties in the field on two different soil types and apply statistics to determine genetic- and location-effects.
2) Apply a reliable and fast screening method for cell wall composition in hemp based on Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to detect differences in parameters related to fibre quality, during development and among locations.
3) Compare the genomes of pools of extreme phenotypes to detect genomic loci involved in sex-expression by the concept of Bulked Segregant Analysis (BSA)
4) Determine genetic diversity groups within accessions and select genomic loci that are suitable for conversion into molecular markers
5) Test hemp lines selected through marker assisted selection in different environments and under stress.

Which of the five topics will be offered will depend on the stage of the project and the interest of the student. The outcome of the research activity (BSc/MSc Thesis or Internship) will contribute to the development of new hemp varieties for a sustainable and circular agriculture.
Used skills Depending on the specific project the student will use one or more of the following skills:
Fieldwork (phenotyping, after harvest measurements); Statistical analysis (i.e. modelling of phenotypic data, NIRS prediction of chemical data); Biochemical analysis (cell wall extraction, lignin measurements, HPLC); Molecular work (DNA isolations for Illumina sequencing); Genomics (mapping to reference genome, SNP filtering, Comparative subsequence sets analysis for BSA (CoSSA))
Requirements Compulsory: PBR-30306 Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality or PBR 37306 Advanced Bioresources.