• Introduction
• Background
• The team
• The barley collection
• Starch characterisation
• Gene discovery
• Fast-track barley breeding
• Our approach in wheat
• Contacts and funding

The team

Project Leaders Kay Denyer and Alison Smith are in the Department of Metabolic Biology at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. They are internationally acknowledged experts on the synthesis of starch, and on the relationship between synthesis and starch structure. JIC also has great expertise in wheat and barley genetics, and access to large international collections of wheat and barley lines.

Kay Denyer has uncovered and started to identify a wealth of variation for starch properties in barley. Preliminary work shows that starches from some of these lines are of potential industrial value. For example, some lines produce many small starch granules and non-crystalline starch-like material. The flour in another line shows remarkable alterations in viscosity properties after gelatinisation.

The Smart Carbohydrate Centre employs two full-time members of staff at JIC.

Sylviane Comparot has previous research experience in plant biochemistry, physiology and molecular biology. Her main responsibility within the SCC is to discover the genes responsible for interesting starch variation in barley, and to introduce new variation for starch properties into wheat.

Thomas Howard has previous research experience in plant biochemistry and molecular biology. His main responsibility within the SCC is to characterise the properties of the starches.

JIC staff member Brendan Fahy also makes an important contribution to the work of the Smart Carbohydrate Centre

Project Leaders Wayne Powell and Andy Greenland are championing the role of pre-breeding research to speed the process of introducing new, desirable characteristics into commercial cultivars. They have outstanding knowledge and experience of wheat and barley genetics and breeding technologies, and both work closely with, and have personal experience of, end-user industries for these crops. Andy Greenland is at the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge, where he leads the newly-created Centre for Plant Genetics, Breeding and Evaluation. Wayne Powell was recently appointed Director of IBERS, Aberystwyth.

The Smart Carbohydrate Centre has one full-time employee at NIAB.

Fiona Leigh has previous research experience in plant genetics and breeding. Within the SCC she is responsible for the fast track breeding programme to introduce new starches into commercial barley.

NIAB staff Phil Howell, Nick Gosman and Ruth Bates also make important contributions to the work of the Smart Carbohydrate Centre.