Quinoa is a popular, high-protein grain from the andean region of south america

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Brigham Young University $415,824 on September 1, 2026, under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI, CFDA 10.310) to develop quinoa varieties adapted to U.S. domestic production conditions beyond the Pacific Northwest and high-elevation Colorado regions where the crop currently thrives.

The project generates new quinoa lines by crossing cultivated quinoa varieties with wild relatives collected throughout the U.S. using a multi-parent intercrossing scheme. Researchers will create a pangenome assembly representing the collective genomic sequences of all parent plants, then use that pangenome to identify DNA sequence variants in derived progeny lines. Genetic mapping will identify sequence variants that regulate desirable agronomic traits, particularly those enabling quinoa to grow in lowland tropical, subtropical, and warm-season temperate environments where the crop does not currently perform well due to its native adaptation to high-elevation, cool-temperature Andean conditions.

Performance of performance is Provo, Utah. The award runs through August 31, 2030.

Because IT is native to high elevations with cool temperatures, IT doesn't grow well in lowland tropical, subtropical, and warm-season temperateareas. Consequently, quinoa production in the U.S. Is low and is mainly limited to cooler regions, including the pacific northwest and at high elevations in colorado. To expand and increase quinoa production in the U.S., new varities are needed that are better adapated to the biotic and abiotic stresses encountered in these new production settings. Although quinoa was domesticated in south america, IT has wild relatives that are naturally adapated to environmental conditions that currently limit quinoa growth. The long-term goal of this project is to use these wild relatives to introduce new genetic variation into quinoa to faciliate the development of new quinoa varities that are better adapated to domestic production conditions. To do this, we will generate a population of new quinoa lines derived by crossing cultivated quinoa varieties with wild relatives that have been collected throughout the U.S., using a multi-parent intercrossing scheme. We will then generate a pangenome assembly that represents the collective genomic sequences of all the parents used in the crosses. This pangenome will be usedto idenfiy DNA sequence variants in the derived progeny lines, enabling genetic mapping to identify the genetic variants that regulate desirable agronomic traits, particularly those that enable quinoa to grow in new environments.