Project properties
Title The potential of sugar beet agricultural side-streams: breeding for protein extractability
Group Plant Breeding, Laboratory of
Project type thesis
Credits 24, 36, 39
Supervisor(s) Prof. Dr. Luisa Trindade, Ir. Hugo Rijken
Examiner(s) Prof. Dr. Luisa Trindade
Contact info luisa.trindade@wur.nl, hugo.rijken@wur.nl
Begin date 2022/07/01
End date 2024/06/01
Description Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is mostly cultivated for the production of sugar, that is extracted from thick roots. Increasing root yield and its sugar content have been major breeding targets in this crop.
Aside from the main harvested component, sugar beet also produces a large amount of leafy biomass. Currently these leaves are unused and discarded on the field during harvest. These leaves form an agricultural side-stream that can be valorized through the extraction of high quality protein (mostly in the form of RuBisCO). Before this protein can be extracted efficiently from sugar beet leaves, better suited varieties, and extraction methods are needed. In this project, a large panel of sugar beet accessions is used to identify genomic loci linked to protein extraction related traits.
A thesis in this project will comprise one or more of the following topics:
• High throughput phenotyping using Near-Infrared spectroscopy, coupled with analysis of cell wall composition or protein content (biochemical methods).
• Analyzing the degree of population stratification within the mapping population (statistical analysis).
• Combining phenotype and genotype data to uncover QTLs for different traits (association genetics).

Used skills • High-throughput phenotyping of sample material (biochemical methods)
• Analysis of cell wall composition, analysis of protein content (biochemical methods)
• Studying the genetic structure of the mapping population (statistical analysis)
Requirements Compulsory: PBR-30306 Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality or PBR 37306 Advanced Bioresources.