UWA wheat research gets $2.5m boost

The federal government will invest close to $1m in the four-year research project, with an additional $1.5m contributed by global partners.

The grant is part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda’s Global Innovation Linkages program, which aims to help Australian research institutions build global links in areas of competitive advantage.

UWA is one of nine successful Australian businesses and research organisations to share in $8.7m of first round funding, to collaborate with global partners in science, research and development projects.

It will work with WA-based crop breeding company InterGrain, along with six global partners to conduct the research.

The research will take place out of UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment, School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Agriculture.

UWA researcher Guijun Yan said breeding for higher yield, better quality and improved adaptation was a constant aim for wheat improvement that the team planned to explore further through their research.

“The expected outcomes of this project will include improved breeding efficiency, novel breeding lines for generating high-yield cultivars adapted to target environments and commercialisation of the developed technologies, including a fast population development service and an international DNA chip genotyping service,” Professor Yan said.

“Wheat yield has increased over time as a direct result of breeding new varieties, and there is still substantial room for improvement in this genomics era.

“With improved breeding lines, we will not only meet the priorities of Australian and Chinese wheat breeding programs, but also contribute to the world demand for food security and sustainability through enhanced production.”

UWA professor Jacqueline Batley said the funding was a significant boost for the university, that could lead to many benefits for WA farmers.

“Through the co-investment of the Global Innovation Linkage and the partner organisations we are able to conduct a detailed analysis into the genetics underlying important agronomic traits in wheat in more than 7000 wheat lines,” she said.

“The main benefit will be the ability to bring in new traits from the diverse Chinese varieties, which grow in a similar conditions but are very different genetically.

“This is expected to lead to varieties with increased yield, quality and greater climatic resilience.”

Professor Batley said the project would aim to accelerate the breeding of wheat cultivators that were adapted to Australian environments.

“This will be performed through identifying regions of the wheat genome that control the traits of interest,” she said.

“Genetic markers will then be developed that can be used to speed up the breeding process by selecting lines that have the desired genes.

“The research will be performed through associating the genetics of the crop with the phenotypic characteristics.

“Field trials will be performed in multiple locations, the genetic work will be performed in state-of-the-art genomic labs.”

International partners involved in the research project include the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences and Beijing Genomics Institute.

Professor Batley said the project would combine the strengths of resources and new technologies from Australia and China to address the industry’s demand for significantly improved wheat yield.

“The project is a true collaboration between groups with many different areas of expertise, bringing these together achieves far more than each of us could do alone,” she said.

“We will collaborate with breeders, bioinformatics, physiology and genomic experts, here and in China, in order to achieve the goals.

“Regular meetings will be scheduled between all partners to ensure success of the project.”