Improving wheat photosynthesis through wide crossing with wild relatives and selection using novel environments

Wheat yield gains are currently insufficient to meet the demands of the future thus posing a risk to global food security. In order to increase yields it is necessary to improve photosynthesis, as this is the primary determinant of biomass. The ability to select for improved photosynthesis within modern bread wheat cultivars is constrained by genetic 'bottlenecks' which occurred following domestication. To increase genetic diversity it may be possible to exploit wild relative germplasm, of particular interest are the genus' Aegilops and Triticum, which exhibit variable photosynthetic traits. In this work, double haploid lines of bread wheat containing introgressions from Aegilops mutica and Triticum urartu are to be screened using a variety of novel environmental conditions including sub-ambient CO2 . The photosynthetic , photoprotective and photorespiratory properties will be evaluated using a variety of techniques including chlorophyll fluorescence, gas exchanging and leaf biochemistry.