Australia-UK Interdisciplinary partnership to speed cereal breeding

Lead Research Organisation: University of Dundee
Department Name: School of Life Sciences

Abstract

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Description Ruth Hamilton, my then PhD student, brought back information useful to setting up speed breeding in Dundee. She applied this in her PhD project to speed up the process of using genomic selection to generate new barley cultivars. She has also brought back straw from australian barley cultivars which we tested for saccharification and compared with european cultivars. Straw from the Australian early-flowering varieties was generally more digestible than from European counterparts but varied between cultivars.
Exploitation Route Speed breeding can reduce the time taken to develop new barley cultivars.
Sectors Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Energy,Transport
 
Description Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant 2018
Amount £150,000 (GBP)
Funding ID RF-2018-30 
Organisation Universities UK International 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2018 
End 03/2019
 
Description Exploring partnerships in barley and cell wall research with australian ECRs 
Organisation Murdoch University
Country Australia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provided funding for eight excellent early career researchers from Australia to visit Dundee with a view to setting up strategic research partnerships for the future. Funding was provided via a successful bid to the UUKI Rutherford Fund : RF-2018-30 - Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant 2018 (£ 150000; 2018 - 2019)
Collaborator Contribution ECRs visited Dundee for 1-11 months each and performed collaborative research which is leading to longer-term future interactions.
Impact Plant biologists; crop breeders; bioinformaticists; genome scientists
Start Year 2018
 
Description Exploring partnerships in barley and cell wall research with australian ECRs 
Organisation University of Adelaide
Country Australia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provided funding for eight excellent early career researchers from Australia to visit Dundee with a view to setting up strategic research partnerships for the future. Funding was provided via a successful bid to the UUKI Rutherford Fund : RF-2018-30 - Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant 2018 (£ 150000; 2018 - 2019)
Collaborator Contribution ECRs visited Dundee for 1-11 months each and performed collaborative research which is leading to longer-term future interactions.
Impact Plant biologists; crop breeders; bioinformaticists; genome scientists
Start Year 2018
 
Description Exploring partnerships in barley and cell wall research with australian ECRs 
Organisation University of Melbourne
Country Australia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provided funding for eight excellent early career researchers from Australia to visit Dundee with a view to setting up strategic research partnerships for the future. Funding was provided via a successful bid to the UUKI Rutherford Fund : RF-2018-30 - Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant 2018 (£ 150000; 2018 - 2019)
Collaborator Contribution ECRs visited Dundee for 1-11 months each and performed collaborative research which is leading to longer-term future interactions.
Impact Plant biologists; crop breeders; bioinformaticists; genome scientists
Start Year 2018
 
Description Exploring partnerships in barley and cell wall research with australian ECRs 
Organisation University of Queensland
Country Australia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provided funding for eight excellent early career researchers from Australia to visit Dundee with a view to setting up strategic research partnerships for the future. Funding was provided via a successful bid to the UUKI Rutherford Fund : RF-2018-30 - Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grant 2018 (£ 150000; 2018 - 2019)
Collaborator Contribution ECRs visited Dundee for 1-11 months each and performed collaborative research which is leading to longer-term future interactions.
Impact Plant biologists; crop breeders; bioinformaticists; genome scientists
Start Year 2018
 
Description University of Dundee-University of Queensland barley Speed breeding project 
Organisation University of Queensland
Department Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Country Australia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Two month placement at the University of Queensland to learn the Speed breeding technique/evaluate barley straw saccharification in an Australian barley panel Collaboration with Lee Hickey's lab group based at the University of Queensland. Lee Hickey is part of QAAFI (The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation) and a lead researcher in Speed breeding growth systems
Collaborator Contribution This collaboration was to learn about the Speed breeding growth system which rapidly decreases plant generation time. The Hickey lab based at the University of Queensland have taken forward this method which was originally developed by NASA. Ruth worked with Lee Hickey's lab for a short placement. An Australian barley panel was grown in Speed breeding conditions, samples were taken for straw saccharification (sugar release) analysis. This will give us an insight into the saccharification range present in the Australian barley, straw sugar release is an indicator of potential biofuel yield from the barley straw. Samples were also taken of the barley panel from field grown material, this will allow a comparison of Speed breeding grown and field grown barley for straw saccharification. Many traits in plants can be scored in Speed breeding systems, it is currently unknown if straw saccharification can be screened for using the Speed Breeding system. If this is the case this will be advantageous for future breeding projects aimed at improving straw saccharification/similar traits, as plants can be taken through rapid generation advance by using Speed breeding growth systems.
Impact This partnership has led to further research of Speed breeding growth systems at the James Hutton Institute. A range of Speed breeding experiments will be carried out based at the James Hutton Institute that will show the potential that Speed breeding can have to plant science research in Scotland.
Start Year 2017