Crop scientists are to showcase cutting edge research that will improve the fitness of wheat for 21st century demands. Scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich will provide a snapshot of the latest research to fight major diseases, combat fungicide resistance and improve yield and grain quality at a meeting for plant breeders today.

“Research done today will determine the availability of fitter, more environmentally friendly varieties tomorrow”, said Professor James Brown, who will introduce the meeting. “To reduce fungicide use, control disease, produce novel varieties and fit crop production to the available growing conditions major advances in our genetic understanding of wheat are needed. These advances will be pioneered at the John Innes Centre in close collaboration with breeders”.

The meeting will also feature emerging problems for other cereals, such as Ramularia, which has become a major pathogen of barley. Ramulia can cause yield losses of up to 35 per cent.

The future challenges to researchers are clear: “The wheat genome is five times the size of the human genome and the challenge of understanding gene function is immense.

“But ultimately it will facilitate breeding for specific traits and improvements, and even allow predictive models to be developed to search for optimal combinations”, said Professor Brown.

Dr Richard Summers, head of cereal breeding at RAGT Seeds, will lead a session at the meeting. He said that “although we have been cultivating wheat for around 12,000 years, there are still large gaps in our understanding. The research being carried out at John Innes can fill some of those gaps and answer current problems to help us breed better varieties.”

The meeting is being held today at the John Innes Centre. Abstracts can be viewed at:
www.jic.ac.uk/events/jic-cereals-2007

The John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK is an independent, world-leading research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 800 staff. JIC is based on Norwich Research Park and carries out high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels. The JIC also trains scientists and students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and communicates its science to end-users and the general public. The JIC is grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.