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Funding opens up NIAB wheat transformation resource to plant research community – Plant Science

Thursday, November 22, 2012 20:32
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…Project leader Dr Emma Wallington says: “At NIAB we can add a new gene into a wheat cell, which already contains an estimated 150,000 genes, and regenerate a new ‘fine-tuned’ wheat plant. This is an important tool which helps us understand what effect the gene has on the plant and is much more precise than traditional breeding techniques. It allows a functional analysis of genes for research and, importantly, a viable route to breeding new traits for commercial exploitation through traditional breeding techniques.”

Starting with 100 immature spring wheat seeds, the NIAB Crop Transformation Team can regenerate transformed wheat plants from 30-50% of the original seed, well above current industry standards. As only one plant is regenerated per seed the researchers can be sure that all of the regenerated plants are individual. NIAB can produce more than 3,000 independent transformed wheat plants per year.

“The high efficiency transformation method we use was developed using an American wheat variety. BBSRC funding will allow us to evaluate 50 UK and European wheat varieties with this method to identify those closer to home that work well, extending the practical value of this technology to UK-grown wheat,” explains Dr Wallington.

To promote its use by plant scientists BBSRC will also fund the transformation of 50 novel genes, producing around 30 unique transgenic wheat plants for each gene. This will be one of the largest experiments undertaken in wheat transformation and will test genes from a wide range of plant species. “Everyone involved in this study is excited by its potential…



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