Special Edition: Crop Science

More wheat breeding and feed sector interactions needed: UK researcher

By Jane Byrne

- Last updated on GMT

'We are still busy making lots of new materials. We are desperate for partners to help in characterizing them,' - Phil Howell, NIAB  [pic: (c) istock,com/veresovich]
'We are still busy making lots of new materials. We are desperate for partners to help in characterizing them,' - Phil Howell, NIAB [pic: (c) istock,com/veresovich]

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A UK plant breeding initiative might be able to identify a class of proteins in wheat similar to that of soy, said a lead researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). 

NIAB is involved in a multi-institute1​ research project — Wheat Improvement Strategic Program (WISP) — looking to produce new wheat varieties via the hybridization between an ancient wheat and wild grass species, with the results expected to offer possibilities for the food and feed sector.

The aim of the program, which is funded by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is to generate novel wheat germplasm characterized for traits relevant to academics and breeders and identify genetic markers for selecting these traits.

“The gene we have looked at the most is the one that creates hard or soft wheat and it has shown far more diversification than we previously anticipated. On the basis of that, we think some of the storage proteins in the new wheat breeds might offer protein equivalence, along with a similar amino acid profile, to soy,”​ Phil Howell, program lead on cereal pre-breeding at the John Bingham Laboratory, NIAB, told FeedNavigator.

In a presentation given at a 2014 meeting of the UK’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF), he said the NIAB team had also identified re-synthesized wheat varieties which may offer improvements in desired feed wheat traits such as secalin negative, soft, low in non-starch polysaccharides, low in xylanase inhibitor proteins, and weak in gluten.

Feed sector support

But Howell said the WISP program now needs feed and food end users to support the quality testing phase.

“We are still busy making lots of new materials. We are desperate for partners to help in characterizing them,”​ said Howell.

The next set of research grant applications for the project is at the end of March 2016, with WISP set to run until 2017.

“What would really be beneficial to ensure chances of securing additional funding for the program would be letters of support from feed and food companies,” ​said Howell.

However, as feed mixes in the UK are based on low cost formulations using the relative cost of each nutrient rather than desired traits, it can be challenging to generate huge feed sector demand for novel wheat varieties, he said.

Howell said it is essential for plant breeders and the animal feed industry to meet to discuss the potential opportunities arising from collaboration and the benefits crop science can deliver for the feed sector.

Breed for Feed

And he has been trying to generate feed interest in the project through participation in a UK initiative, the Breed for Feed group, which meets intermittently and involves commercial feed compounders and breeders. The group is headed by Dr Chris Tapsell, head of wheat breeding at KWS.

Indeed, Tapsell told the 2014 BPEX Innovation Conference of the difficulty in getting the supply chain interested in exploring opportunities for improving the nutritional quality for feed of an individual crop.

In his presentation outline​, he wrote: “Most, if not all, crops used for feed are commodities, with price driving the market. Feed producers will switch between crops dependent on global prices and mix crops with other additives to produce the required feed. This is the skill of the feed producers and totally understandable.

“Many involved may not even be aware of the variation that exists in the crop and certainly they would not be expecting to pay extra for it. In addition, the supply chain itself may not be able to easily adapt to segregating specialist crops.”  

NIAB is delivering the ‘Synthetics Pillar’ of the WISP project.

Re-synthesised wheat​ — also called Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat, or SHWs — are fully crossable with modern wheats, and are an excellent bridge for transferring useful genetic diversity from wild relatives into modern UK wheat, said NIAB.

SHWs are developed by crossing durum wheat (a tetraploid) and wild goatgrass (a diploid). The first step is to make a cross in the greenhouse, just like any breeding program, said the Institute.

Pollen from wild goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii​) is placed onto prepared ears of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum​ durum).

Seeds begin to form which are then removed from the durum wheat ears. In the lab these immature seeds are dissected and the tiny seed embryos are transferred onto a petri dish to germinate.

When the resulting small plants are strong enough they are treated with colchicine to double the chromosome number, and then grown on in pots to produce mature plants and ultimately, seed.

The process does not use GM technology. This seed is the re-synthesised wheat, or SHW, which can be used in standard crosses with other wheat varieties, said NIAB.

Niche supply chains

While crops grown for these markets may still be commodities, there are premium opportunities for farmers and niche supply chains can develop, continued Tapsell.

Drawing comparisons with UK bread production, he wrote that, by exploiting research outputs and breeding for quality markets in the UK alone, plant breeders have reduced the need for large imports of bread quality wheat. 

Furthermore, argues Tapsell, specialist products have been produced, which serve relatively niche market segments, and the opportunity to innovate further is a key driver for researchers and breeders alike.

“KWS has been looking at what has been done in the past and what might be possible for the crops it breeds. Importantly, we believe that partnerships with feed compounders and animal producers will offer the greatest opportunity for innovation,”​ he wrote.

Researchers have looked at producing high phytase wheat and are willing to look at other nutritional factors and whether they can be increased, he added. Or they can also look at anti-nutritional factors and see if they can be reduced or eliminated, reported the breeding specialist.

Breeders working on many different crops can change the balance of grain components such as increasing protein, changing the nature of starch and changing the content of amino acids, continued Tapsell.

“Different crops have different opportunities in the feed supply chain. Farmers will go for yield if they see no opportunity for a premium for quality. Working together in the supply chain is likely to be the only way to capture opportunities that can be created through breeding,”​ he concluded. 

​WISP also involves the John Innes Centre, Rothamsted Research, the University of Bristol and the University of Nottingham.

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