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Portable Specim IQ VNIR Hyperspectral Camera Radiometrically Calibrated and Configured with Accessories Pro Package Project: Identifying Aflatoxin Risk in southeastern peanuts: high-throughput physiol... Portable Specim IQ VNIR Hyperspectral Camera Radiometrically Calibrated and Configured with Accessories Pro Package Project: Identifying Aflatoxin Risk in southeastern peanuts: high-throughput physiological and hyperspectral phenotyping of drought-resistance and thermal tolerance traits GENERAL INFORMATION 1.0 Scope of Work: Ongoing work in our labs is aiming to understand the minimum set of physiological traits which can accurately predict peanut drought resistance in both the most frequently planted commercial lines, advanced breeding lines, and a landrace (“black pod”) that have been previously observed to have different [high to low] drought resistance during field trials. We will measure currently standard physiological drought-response traits and drought resistance traits only recently measured in peanut like hydraulic vulnerability and temperature sensitivity of residual conductance. While quantifying these traits in our preliminary studies has shown promise for phenotyping whole-plant drought resistance in peanut, their measurement is time-intensive and sample limited. We will leverage a recently developed hyperspectral phenotyping platform in our lab to develop models for predicting peanut plant water potential, water content, and aflatoxin risk during drought stress. To accelerate this work, we will double the capacity of our physiological phenotyping platform (the UF Plant Array) so that twice as many peanut plants can be screened at once, so we can concurrently screen the same 8 lines under study at the NPRL in Dawson, GA.. 2.0 Background: Peanuts must be drought-resilient for production under rainfed conditions. Drought lowers yields and plant defenses—resulting in additional stressors like heat, disease, and insect feeding. Stress for the plant and Aspergillus leads to production of Aflatoxin, a mycotoxin with negative human health impacts and dire consequences for the peanut industry, especially shellers, who must meet strict domestic and stricter international standards for Aflatoxin contamination. Here, we propose to develop a high-throughput phenotyping system to identify the suite of traits that confers drought-resilient growth and survival in southeastern peanuts. By identifying a range of drought-resilient growth and survival traits, we will then conduct Aflatoxin challenge trails where plants are inoculated and expose to drought once pods have begun maturing, to amplify the potential for aflatoxin production. We will conduct hyperspectral imaging of all experimental materials, to develop early-warning signals for a) association of the plant with Aspergillus, b) plant stress detection related to drought, and c) direct aflatoxin risk detection. Our work across scales (greenhouses, field plots, and region-wide risk modeling) aims to integrate the knowledge generated by this work into actionable information for peanut growers to operationalize CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS This request is not for a service 3.0 Technical Requirements/Tasks: not applicable 4.0 Government Furnished: not applicable 6.0 Travel: not applicable 7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel: not applicable 8.0 Security Requirements: not applicable 9.0 Data Rights: not applicable 10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards: not applicable