Economic Impact brochure - John Innes Centre

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A century of wheat improvement Bread wheat, with an estimated world harvest of more than 550 million tonnes, is one of the most important food crops in the world. Today, the UK crop has an annual farm gate value of more than £2 billion, and is the UK’s biggest crop export. British farmers grow approximately 16 million tonnes every year and export 2.5-3 million tonnes. Biffen collected different wheat varieties from around the world to develop new lines from them. In 1916, PBI released the variety “Yeoman”. British varieties, though better adapted to the UK and higher yielding, were unable to compete with foreign imports that made an aerated, fluffy loaf. Yeoman was a high yielding, strong wheat that made high quality loaves, and made a major contribution to UK food supplies in the early twentieth century. In the 1960s and 70s, a ‘Green Revolution’ in agricultural production led to large increases in yield worldwide. The main contributors to this were elite wheat crops with the Rht (reduced height) character. This reduced the amount of straw in the plant while increasing grain yield. ! Breeders at the PBI were among the first to use the Rht character to develop a stunningly successful set of wheat lines that dominated UK wheat production. This material is still used by breeders in the private sector, who have continued to increase wheat yields using knowledge generated at the PBI. Scientists at the JIC identified the Rht gene itself in 1998 in a major breakthrough that increased our understanding of how plant height is controlled by hormones. Recent discoveries at JIC have also shown that the Rht gene can keep plants growing in suboptimal conditions, suggesting new uses for this gene. ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT Plant breeders, initially at the PBI, have used the Rht gene to increase UK wheat production by £75 million per annum. The contribution of semi-dwarfing genes to world wheat production is estimated at a staggering £3.4 billion annually. Over its 75 year history breeders at the PBI produced over 130 new varieties of wheat and other crops. The above figures are therefore just one example of its economic impact.
Wheat research in the pipeline Wheat breeding The success of wheat is partly due to its high fertility, a product of the stability of its genome. This stability is however also a barrier to introducing new traits. JIC scientists have characterised a stretch of DNA responsible for the stability of the wheat genome, called the Ph1 locus. Ph1 is the major barrier to exchanging genetic material between the chromosomes of wheat and wild species. The scientists are now investigating the possibility of temporarily switching off the Ph1 locus to allow breeders to cross breed wheat with its wild relatives. This has the potential to revolutionise wheat breeding worldwide. It would open up a large pool of desirable traits to commercial cultivars such as salt tolerance, drought resistance, pest and disease resistance and increased yield. These valuable traits are otherwise unavailable. Yield Yield is a complex trait influenced by many environmental and genetic factors. It was thought that the genetic component determining yield was made up of many different genes each exerting a small influence, but recent work led by the John Innes Centre has challenged this view. Several stretches of the genome, known as quantitative trail loci (QTLs) have been identified that exert large effects on yield, in different environments. The molecular mechanisms underlying the genes are not well understood. JIC scientists are leading the effort to find the precise genetic basis for their effect on yield. As part of this effort they are collaborating with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) on precompetitive research to improve the genetic resources available to wheat breeders. JIC scientists are also leading work to determine the complete genetic make-up of bread wheat. This will be led by innovative applications of next generation DNA sequencing. Wheat research has a profound social and economic impact because wheat feeds 40% of the world’s population providing about 20% of the calories eaten globally. ! Nitrogen fixation Plants require nitrogen, and crops require additional nitrogen to be added in the form of fertilisers. Fertilisers can increase yield by as much as 50%, but their production uses more fossil fuels than any other agricultural process. They also cause pollution when they leach into groundwater and the atmosphere. N 2 O created by producing and applying nitrogenous fertilisers is the most important greenhouse gas produced by agriculture. Some plants, such as peas, source their own nitrogen by taking it from the air. These plants house bacteria in nodules on their roots. The bacteria take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form of fixed nitrogen that plants can use. The interaction between the plant and the bacteria involves a complex system of signals. JIC scientists are working to understand these interactions and to develop new strategies to transfer nitrogen fixation to other crops. If successful these will lead to a substantial reduction in the carbon footprint of world agriculture and to the improved sustainability of crop production. Increased yields could be achieved with lower inputs. ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT Nitrogen fertiliser production consumes 1.2% of the world’s total energy on an annual basis. Extending the capacity for fixing nitrogen to maize, rice and wheat, would dramatically reduce the production costs of world agriculture. Furthermore, by reducing the dependency of crops on an oil-guzzling and expensive process, it would also help reduce the impact of oil prices on the price of food.
Page 1 and 2: Economic Impact “Science is the k
Page 3: ! Background The JIC is a company l
Page 7 and 8: Pea aphids
Page 9 and 10: More crop research in the pipeline
Page 13 and 14: Research frontiers Plant viruses to
Page 15 and 16: The John Innes Centenary Rose

Economic Impact brochure - John Innes Centre

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