NIAB's synthetic wheat programme will be featured on BBC Countryfile at 6pm on 12 May, and across BBC News programmes that day, as part of a feature highlighting how plants can be adapted for the future to deal with things like an increased population, reduced space and climate change.
The synthetics breeding programme at NIAB recreates the original chance hybridisation event, which happened in the Middle East 10,000 years ago, that provides the genetic basis for today’s modern wheat varieties. This could provide novel sources of genetic diversity that could be bred conventionally into modern wheat varieties, offering potential new sources of yield improvement, drought tolerance, disease resistance and input use efficiency.
More information on the project will be posted later.
BBC News: Cambridge-based scientists develop 'super-wheat'
British scientists say they have developed a new type of wheat which could increase productivity by 30%.