Australia is one step closer to having gene edited wheat, with Australian cereal breeder InterGrain growing its first wheat lines at The University of Western Australia's (UWA) research facilities in Shenton Park this year.
These are made up of several as-yet unnamed varieties that stem from the collaboration between InterGrain and international pre-breeding business Inari.
The aim of this partnership is to produce wheat with 10-15 per cent more grain yield that can be grown in a sustainable manner, without using more land, and needs fewer inputs, such as nitrogen.
InterGrain has supplied Inari with several promising new wheat lines that are thought to be well-adapted to Australian conditions.
Inari uses applied data science and software engineering to address the complex systems within the plants from these elite lines to unlock the full potential of their natural genes, with a focus on the genes that impact grain yield and water and fertiliser use efficiency.
In the US, the company also uses gene editing methods on corn and soybean.
Inari chief executive Ponsi Trivisvavet, who was in Perth for AgriFutures' evokeAG. 2024 last week and the Grains Research and Development Corporation's Grains Research Updates earlier this week, said the company was delighted to be working for the first time in both Australia and in wheat.
"Our SEEDesign platform has the ability to transform any crop in any geography," Ms Trivisvavet said.
"Expanding not only into wheat, but also into a new continent presents an exciting opportunity to broaden the reach and impact of our cutting-edge technology."
InterGrain chief executive officer Tress Walmsley said Inari's technology had the capacity to dramatically improve grower onfarm profitability through the delivery of significantly higher yielding cereal varieties across a range of grain growing environments.
"The genetic advancements available within our future varieties will ensure Australian growers' competitive market advantages are maintained," Ms Walmsley said.
She said yield and input advantages of the new gene edited wheat lines would be assessed at UWA's Shenton Park facility this season and then more broadly in the Wheatbelt next year.
These lines are classified as SDN1 and meet Australia's regulatory requirements.
"Australia has agreed that SDN1 seed material can be grown as a commercial product, so once the lines have cleared quarantine, we will be ready to go," Ms Walmsley said.
"We are doing this for the Australian wheat grower, who is wholeheartedly chasing higher yields.
"And we are confident we can achieve at least 10pc higher yields with the gene edited lines.
"The idea is these wheats would also use less nitrogen and generally have lower inputs, meaning cost savings for the grower and a win for the environment."
Ms Trivisvavet said the Inari technology was world-leading, with gene editing based on the CRISPR tool and convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) prediction to help identify natural genes for further enhancement.
She said it was nothing short of phenomenal to have developed gene edited lines with seed ready to test within two years of the collaboration with InterGrain.
"That has never happened before anywhere in the world," she said.
"Typically, traditional breeding would take seven years to get to this stage and breeding of genetically modified crops would take up to 15 years."
Ms Walmsley said the wheat genome was five times more complex than the human genome, which had presented many challenges for traditional plant breeders.
She said new technologies, such as those used by Inari, had greatly boosted breeding capacity and time to market.
Ms Trivisvavet said the challenge was to beat the clock for the need to grow sustainable crops into the future.
"These new lines require no extra inputs, but will boost productivity and grower profits," she said.
"There is also the food security issue, as Australian grain feeds people in many parts of the world and technology needs to stay ahead of this requirement.
"To get a 10pc yield improvement is 10 times better than the 1pc yield improvement we are currently seeing with traditional plant breeding methods."
Ms Walmsley said InterGrain would work with grain marketers and major traders to access market opportunities for the new wheat lines when they were ready for commercialisation.
"We don't want any surprises in the industry," she said.
"We are also working with Grain Trade Australia and Grain Australia on what is coming through our system."
