G20 provides US$20m in funding for wheat research

ANU researchers will share in US$20m in funding to be provided by the G20 to strengthen global food security by making more energy-efficient wheat.

The funding is provided by the agriculture ministers of the G20 nations, through the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), to coordinate worldwide wheat research efforts to raise the genetic yield potential of wheat.

Wheat is one of the most important staples in the world and its demand is expected to increase by 60% in the next 20 years. Global crop yields will need to double by 2050 to meet future food security needs, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Researchers from ANU feature in two of the eight projects that have received the funding.

The first project will exploit the energy systems of wheat plants to dramatically improve their yield through a novel approach that combines cutting-edge molecular techniques with traditional breeding.

The three-year project involves researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico. As the Australian partner of IWYP, the Grains Research and Development Corporation will be the primary funder of this project.

“Improving photosynthesis is the next frontier in wheat breeding,” said one of the funding recipients, ANU Professor Robert Furbank from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis.

“The approach will identify new opportunities for wheat improvement through selective breeding for energy use efficiency,” added ANU Professor Barry Pogson from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

The second project will search for the genes which control how efficiently wheat uses photosynthesis to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide into grain. By matching regions of the wheat genome to photosynthetic performance, the researchers hope to enable a revolution in breeding high-yielding wheat.

The team for this project includes researchers from the University of Liverpool in the UK, Lancaster University in UK, CIMMYT and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis.

“We hope to give wheat breeders a new toolbox of genes for yield improvement by combining new genomics tools developed in Europe, novel phenotyping technologies developed in Australia and diverse wheat varieties available from CIMMYT,” Professor Furbank said.

The two projects will commence in 2016.