成人大片

A team of international researchers has discovered a way to produce higher quality wheat. The scientists from the 成人大片 and the UK鈥檚 John Innes Centre have identified a genetic driver that improves yield traits in wheat, which unexpectedly can also lead to increasing protein content by up to 25 per cent.

听鈥淟ittle is known about the mechanism behind drivers of yields and protein content in wheat production,鈥� said the 成人大片鈥檚 Dr Scott Boden, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine who led the research.

鈥淒iscovering a gene that controls these two factors has the potential to help generate new wheat varieties that produce higher quality grain.听

鈥淎s wheat accounts for nearly 20 per cent of protein consumed worldwide, the impact of this research can significantly benefit society by providing grains with a higher protein content, which could therefore help produce more nutritious food, such as bread and breakfast cereals.鈥�

鈥淎s wheat accounts for nearly 20 per cent of protein consumed worldwide, the impact of this research can significantly benefit society by providing grains with a higher protein content, which could therefore help produce more nutritious food..."Dr Scott Boden

The work is the first known example where a forward-genetics screen of a mutant population has been used to identify a gene that controls reproductive development in wheat and insights from this research has the potential to help improve the nutritional and economic value of wheat.

鈥淭he genetic variation we identified provides a 15-25 per cent increase in protein content for plants grown in the field. These varieties also produce extra spikelets, known as paired spikelets,鈥� said Dr Boden.

鈥淲e have not yet detected an increase in yield with the extra spikelets, but we hope a yield increase might come in elite varieties grown by farmers.

鈥淭he increase in protein content occurs without the trade-off of a reduced yield so this discovery has even better potential to provide economic benefit to breeders and growers than just the increased nutritional value by itself.

鈥淎side from the important outcome of this work for the future of wheat breeding, the research itself is of immense value to the scientific community as it provides an elegant example of new capabilities that are available to wheat research.鈥�

The team expects that the new wheat varieties will be available to breeders in 2鈥�3 years鈥� time, which could then translate to benefits for farmers in 7鈥�10 years鈥� time.

The team鈥檚 findings were published in the journal .

This project was funded by the Royal Society (UK), the Biological and Biotechnology Sciences Research Council (UK), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the South Australian Grain Industry Trust (SAGIT) and the 成人大片鈥檚 Waite Research Institute.