Award for breeding better varieties faster

Plant Science

An award-winning research project led by University of Adelaide plant scientist Dr Howard Eagles is helping plant breeders produce better varieties at a faster rate.

Dr Eagles, part of the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and based at the University's Waite Campus, started working on the project in 1998 while still with the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.

Dr Eagles, with collaborators including former University of Adelaide plant breeder Gil Hollamby, has developed technologies that can predict the probability of getting acceptable flour quality from thousands of potential wheat variety crosses.

"A lot of promising wheat crosses from breeding programs get to the final testing only to find that their flour quality is not good enough," said Dr Eagles.

"Our research means breeders can make crosses that will produce an increased proportion of progeny with good wheat quality, allowing greater selection for grain yield and disease resistance. This is increasing the rate of genetic gain of wheat in Australia."

The project recently won one of four national Excellence in Innovation awards from the CRC Association.

Dr Eagles's predictions of wheat quality are based on the possible combinations from eight genes, seven of which have multiple variants.

Using back data from breeding programs from South Australia, NSW and Victoria, he has been able to predict wheat quality for more than 10,000 possible outcomes from potential crosses. Other collaborators include the Victorian and NSW Departments of Primary Industries, Australian Grain Technologies and the University of Sydney.

Dr Eagles is now working another set of genes which influence flowering time.

Story by Robyn Mills