UK scientists have released draft sequences of the wheat genome, in what the NFU has called an ‘exciting development for the cereals sector’ with great significance for both British agriculture and global food security. 
The
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which funded work led by Prof Neil Hall, of the University of Liverpool, says the breakthrough will help breeders focus on varieties with high yield characteristics, improved quality or traits such as resistance to disease or drought.
The data was made publically available on Friday.
NFU chief science and regulatory affairs adviser, Helen Ferrier, said: “This is a very exciting development for the cereals sector and has great significance for British agriculture as well as for food security, given the importance of the wheat crop globally.
“This information about the wheat genome can be used to help crop breeders develop even better varieties of wheat more rapidly for British growers, which may give improved yield, quality, disease resistance, or resilience to extreme weather.
“This kind of publicly available research is essential to enable farmers to increase production and efficiency while impacting less on the environment. However, for the positive impact of this research to be felt by farmers and wider society, there needs to be robust and effective channels of knowledge exchange between the basic science, seed companies, the advisory sector and growers.”
The wheat genome is the largest genome decoded to date. It is five times larger than the human genome and is known to be a very complex structure, comprised of three independent genomes.
The successful team included Prof Neil Hall and Dr Anthony Hall at the University of Liverpool, Prof Keith Edwards and Dr Gary Barker at the University of Bristol and Prof Mike Bevan at the John Innes Centre.
No comments have been made.