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

Our approach in wheat

Wheat is a much more important source of starch and flour than barley. It is of very considerable commercial interest to produce wheat varieties with new starches. Unfortunately this is extremely difficult to do because wheat has three sets of each of its chromosomes (called the A, B and D genomes). In other words, wheat is a hexaploid. We cannot apply to wheat the simple genetic approaches we are using in barley (a diploid).

To generate variation in wheat we need to alter expression of target genes in all three genomes. To do this we are, we are using TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes) in collaboration with Rothamsted Research. TILLING is a non GM, reverse genetics technique. It enables us to find mutations in wheat in genes we think (based on our work with barley and our knowledge of other cereals) will influence the properties of starch. Once we have found plants with mutations in the target gene in the A or B or D genome, we can cross them together to produce a line in which the starch should have new properties. This line can then be tested by users of wheat such as millers and bakers. Importantly, we also need to backcross the mutant plants to eliminate the thousands of other mutations they carry.

In collaboration with Andy Phillips,

Step 1. Utilise an existing population of mutagenised grain Step 2. Screen the population for plants that contain mutations in the target gene. Plants with mutations in the A, B and D genomes are required