Wheat Seeds Photosynthesise! - Startling NEW Discovery

Professor Robert Henry ... discovery turns half a century of plant biology on its head. view more

Credit: The University of Queensland

A new photosynthesis discovery at The University of Queensland may help breed faster-growing wheat crops that are better adapted to hotter, drier climates.

A research team led by Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation researcher Professor Robert Henry has today published a paper in Scientific Reports, showing that photosynthesis occurs in wheat seeds as well as in plant leaves.  "This discovery turns half a century of plant biology on its head," Professor Henry said.

"Wheat covers more of the earth than any other crop, so the ramifications of this discovery could be huge. It may lead to better, faster-growing, better-yielding wheat crops in geographical areas where wheat currently cannot be grown."  Professor Henry said the work built on a biological discovery in the 1960s at the old Colonial Sugar Refining Company in Brisbane.  "Many said that discovery should have won a Nobel Prize," he said.  "The Brisbane researchers at that time demonstrated that sugarcane and some other tropically adapted plants had evolved a different photosynthesis pathway than that seen in around 85 per cent of plants."

The classic photosynthesis pathway was known as C3, and plants with the alternative photosynthesising chemistry came to be known as C4 plants, Professor Henry said.  "C4 plants capture carbon faster and have higher growth rates, particularly in subtropical and tropical environments," he said.  "Our research characterised a previously unknown photosynthetic C4 pathway in the seeds of wheat - which is not a C4 plant.  "Like most plants, wheat photosynthesises through its leaves, but we've discovered there is also photosynthesis in the seed.

"This has never been known before, yet the wheat seed is quite green when you peel it off and it is the last part of the plant to die."  Professor Henry said photosynthesis - the process by which plants converted sunlight into energy for growth and produce oxygen - was arguably the most important biological process on earth.  "Wheat has the classic C3 photosynthetic pathway in its leaves, however C3 plants, which include rice, are less efficient in hotter, drier climates," Professor Henry said.

"The holy grail of plant science has long been to bioengineer the photosynthetic pathways in C3 and C4 plants to grow larger, more productive crops that are better adapted to climate change and boost food security.

"The population of the world's tropical regions will soon exceed that of the rest of the world, and this discovery may be important in growing food to meet future demand."

Professor Henry said the discovery was quite unexpected.

"We were looking at the genes in wheat seeds and all the computer systems kept coming back with these C4 genes, which we thought must be wrong because wheat is not a C4 plant," he said.  "Eventually we discovered wheat does have all these C4 genes in different places, on different chromosomes. It's never been known in wheat."

Wheat had been cultivated for 10,000 years and it had always been a C3 plant, Professor Henry said.

"Wheat's photosynthetic pathway evolved 100 million years ago when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were up to 10 times higher than they are today," he said.  "One theory is that as carbon dioxide began to decline, the plant's seeds evolved a C4 pathway to capture more sunlight to convert to energy."

The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation is a UQ institute jointly supported by the Queensland Government.

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This is quite amazing stuff from an agricultural science and plant physiology perspective with longer term potential for more effective biochemical pathways in wheat and maybe other grass grain crops.

Niche Marketing for Quality and Differentiated Agribusiness Products

The article below came from a recent NAB Agribusiness newsletter and highlights the opportunity in agribusiness for shrewd operators.

The emphasis is on quality and differentiation of the product, a trait that seems to be increasing in Australian agriculture.  With large organisations such as Australian Agriculture Company - AACo - marketing their own branded beef through supermarkets, mango growers marketing single variety products sourced from a range of areas to the wheat group highlighted here, ways are being found to differentiate products formerly thought of as mass market products.  And creating significant value along the way.

Can you as a rural producer do something similar or create a group that could? 

While not for everyone, it certainly has a place in today and tomorrow's rural product mix, particularly to urban consumers who are often brand focused.

It is important to also note the emphasis on traceability - a big issue for food products.

Here is the NAB article - with acknowledgement to the NAB Agribusiness Newsletter [electronic].
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Run by four families, Flinders Ranges Premium Grain in South Australia has an expanding grain and flour export business that sells itself on the location and soil it’s grown in, in the same way wine does. Their specialised Katana wheat is acclaimed by frozen dough producers in India and the Middle East as much as it is by artisan bakers in Australia.

It’s taken 15 years, but Flinders Ranges Premium Grain (FRPG) in South Australia is riding an export boom for their flour made from low-yield hard wheat called Katana.

The Ranges’ low rainfall and limestone rich soil give their specialised wheat an elastic protein profile that gives it an extended frozen shelf life without the inclusion of preservatives or additives. This has made it popular among frozen dough producers in India and the Middle East as well as artisan bread producers in Australia.  “We knew that doing well as a business meant moving away from producing a soft commodity where we were at the wrong end of the pricing chain,” says FRPG CEO Peter Barrie.  “We looked at what food producers in different markets required as well as what our four family-run properties in the Flinders Ranges could best produce. We started experimenting with hard wheat. While not as high yield as many grains, the elastic, high protein qualities of the grains opened up premium markets to us – abroad and at home.”

Understand your product’s role in the food industry

Ongoing research and development (R&D) is a hallmark of FPRG’s business strategy. From early on, they formed a solid relationship with Adelaide TAFE to test how the flour grown on their farms performed for different segments of the food industry.  “Discovering how our wheat performed as a baking ingredient led us to identify our niche export market,” says Barrie. “Once we knew what we needed to provide to frozen dough producers, we continued testing wheat varieties until we found our best for purpose grain.”

This emphasis on R&D coupled with ‘paddock-to-plate’ traceability helped FRPG secure the Bakers Circle India and the Middle East contracts to supply the flour for frozen dough for the regions’ Subway stores.

Even with the Indian contract well established, Barrie still travels to India, and now Dubai, to check how his flour performs within its production environment and as an end product in the local Subway stores. “It’s satisfying being part of the whole production process in all these different places,” he adds.

Consistent quality demands full traceability

Quality, consistency and traceability are equally important for FRPG’s large overseas clients. The company has a fully auditable path from farm to shipping that guarantees the clean and green standards of their produce. This traceability involves having their own storage silos and mill, so there is no risk of contamination with inferior grain from other farms.

Australia’s reputation as clean and green is a big drawcard internationally. The National Residue Testing Standards are a good base. However, Barrie points out that most countries and big food manufacturers have their own strict standards. This makes meeting individual customer protocols time-consuming.  “It’s another reason single origin grain and flour from small family owned farms holds an international advantage,” he says. “We can provide the traceability and quality control. The low rainfall on our properties means fewer chemicals.

We don’t need fungicides, and we select varieties that are disease resistant. Being a family farm is a definite marketing advantage. Companies and consumers like to know where their flour has come from and have the security of knowing who produced it.”

Find your niche and you find your future

Barrie is excited about the future of Australian agriculture and FRPG in particular. While acknowledging that the falling dollar helps, he doesn’t shy away from the need to continuously explore new markets and tailor wheat for their needs, saying: “It’s a non-stop learning curve for everyone involved”.  

FRPG is currently working with the University of Adelaide’s School of Chemical Engineering to try and double the shelf life of wholemeal wheat and, if international demand is high enough, set up a wholemeal mill.  “We keep one step ahead of the market by identifying and then solving a problem for the food industry,” he says.

FRPG went on three government trade missions in 2015. So far, they’ve steered clear of China because the margins were too low. However, that market is opening up for premium primary produce. “We’re looking to diversify into three or four countries plus develop our domestic artisan sourdough flour market,” says Barrie.

He sees great opportunities for young farmers today. The export market is opening up in exciting ways – if farmers become part of the food industry instead of suppliers of a soft commodity.

“Accept the challenges, and life on and off the farm gets more interesting,” advises Barrie.
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More on the business here - www.flindersgrain.com.au

Seed Germ Bank for Cereal and Wheat's Future

CIMMYT wheat germplasm collection head Thomas Payne with wheat lines stored in CIMMYT’s germplasm collection

CIMMYT’s Generation Challenge Program transition manager Peter Ninnes.

It was recognised that for crops humanity depends on, we can’t assign a single owner

Plant Genetic Seed Banks have been around for many years with the first major one developed in the USA at Fort Collins in Colorado at Colorado State University, where I have spent some time involved with seed physiology and storage research, many years ago.

A lot more has happenend since then and most recently with the development of the Millenium Seed Bank project at Svalbard in Greenland, which has received a lot of publicity, as well as seeds from Australia.

For the major cereal crops - rice, wheat, corn etc there are a few of these facilities often associated with major research facilities.  CIMMYT has had a wheat seed bank [ along with similar cereals] basically since it commenced as a research centre.

THE future of the world’s wheat is reliant on the seed lines in the massive vaults at the CIMMYT research centre just outside Mexico City where 150,000 lines of wheat seed from primitive wild races to the latest purpose-bred varieties are safely stored.

Assembled over the past 40 plus years from countries around the world, including Australia, the facility’s temperature and humidity-controlled vaults house a diverse collection of bread wheats, durum wheats, triticales and barleys.

It is the largest collection in a network of 11 international genebanks around the world that, in total, hold 600,000 accessions.

CIMMYT wheat germplasm collection head Thomas Payne said the material held in the collection in Mexico was an important resource for plant breeders around the world. He said interest in the world’s botanical resources began in the era of exploration when early explorers sent botanical materials back to their “home countries”. But it was only in the last century that the importance of conserving the materials in a viable state for long term use was recognised. “People started to recognise the fragility of genetic resources and the fact that varieties could, and were, becoming extinct,” he said.

Mr Payne said that prompted a flurry of plant exploration and germplasm collection around the world for much of the 1900s, especially in the period between 1960 - 1980 as the Green Revolution was developing. “But that tailed off in the 1980s because nations became aware of genetic resources within their territories,” he said. “There was a recognition ultimately that was codified through international treaties that stipulated the genetic resources within the boundaries of a country belonged to that country.”

The resulting Convention on Biological Diversity recognised that the genetic resources within the territory of a sovereign nation were the property of that nation. “It was enacted because countries were concerned, for instance, that a big pharmaceutical company would come in and make millions of dollars out of acquiring a medicinal plant,” he said.  It was also a significant issue in Australia, as we both use the genetic resources from overseas acquired through exploration eg for new crop and pasture varieties as well as a major unexplored country for plant genetic resources [ see the recent Australian newspaper article of April 2014 on a very promising cancer drug from the north Queensland rain forest].

But Mr Payne said an inadvertent consequence of the convention was it stopped germplasm sharing – in particular, sharing of agricultural crops. “So it was recognised there needed to be another legal instrument to facilitate the exchange of germplasm and the sharing of agricultural crops,” he said. “A wheat variety that has been developed over the last 10,000 years and bred over the last 50 or 100 years has parentage representing many different countries. “So how can you say who is the legal owner of, say, triticum aestivum - bread wheat – which originally evolved 10,000 years ago in what is now the Caspian Sea area of Iran. Is Iran the owner of all bread wheat in the world? “We know many important varieties have come from Australia. Would you say Australia is the owner? “So it was recognised that for crops humanity depends on we can’t assign a single owner.”

In the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture which was ratified in 2004 and came into action in 2007, agricultural germplasms were elevated to a special status that recognised their global significance. “The intent of the treaty is to open up the sharing of agricultural genetic material,” Mr Payne said. “It says the recipient of materials from CIMMYT or any of the genebanks under the treaty are free to do anything they want to with the material. “They are encouraged to share the materials they develop from the materials they receive from CIMMYT. “They are also free to patent or restrict access to the material. But if they choose to restrict access to the materials they have to pay a certain percentage of the income they receive into an international benefit sharing fund.”

Australian scientist and CIMMYT’s Generation Challenge Program transition manager Peter Ninnes said 

Australia was one of the first countries to sign up to the international treaty to share genetic resources.

Mr Ninnes has been instrumental in putting in place a structure from which Australia benefits from the genetic diversity of the wheat at CIMMYT. “Australian breeders make their selections in the field in Mexico, the seed goes into quarantine in Australia and is then made available to the Australian breeding teams. That is how Australia gets access to the genetic diversity,” he said. “The intention is that the information that comes out of the assessments in Australia feeds back into the program at CIMMYT.”

These facilities have also been instrumental in research work on seed storage - the ability to develop systems and practices to preserve seed viability and their intrinsic genetic message in the DNA for extended time periods.  And to also research those seed and crop lines that cannot be easily stored - the so called recalcitrant seeds [often tropical] that do not respond well in general to cool dry conditions, common for storage of many seeds incl wheat.  Recalcitrant seed management is a story in itself!

[ part of this article appeared in the online edition of Qld Country Life April 2014 ]

What is present in the world’s largest wheat collection in CIMMYT’s genebank

150,000 varieties;

350 grams of each variety;

two storage vaults;

a medium-term vault at zero degrees Celsius;

a long-term vault at minus 18 degrees Celsius;

seed viability remains at 85 percent or above for 30 to 100 years;

seed available to breeders around the world;

5 grams of cultivated varieties sent;

5 to 10 grains of rarer wild species sent.

Salt Resistant Wheat - A Big Step Forward by Australian Science

The news has been a few more years in development following the discovery of the actual gene in the 1990s, that can convey salt resistance in wheat.
The news was even on AM this morning, with the interview of people involved, following publication of the article in the journal Nature.
[link to AM story - http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3450926.htm ]

This has been a big step forward by the staff at the Waite Institute [ Uni of Adelaide] and Centre for Plant Functional Genomics in Adelaide with the incorporation of the gene from a wheat ancestor into durum wheat and the material moving into the pre production phase of a new commercial variety, with commercial availability likely to be 4-5 years from now.

While durum wheat is a smaller crop area than the more traditional bread wheats, it is also an important one, as prices can be quite a bit higher. Durum wheats conventionally are used for pasta and related products.

Salt tolerance is a very important trait, as both in Australia and elsewhere the areas suitable for cropping, but damaged by salt ingress are increasing, as well as the possibility of being able to use less than ideal water for irrigation, a major issue in many areas of the world.

The interview is a bit superficial I thought, as the real issues are of world wide relevance for wheat production. No doubt work is already under way to extend this to bread wheats. A better overview is here on a science report - http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/03/12/3451266.htm?WT.svl=news5

The other part of the work is that now the gene hs been identified, it may be feasible to also incorporate it into other major crops - with other grains an obvious first target - think rice, maize, as major ones initially. It also comes soon one of the same groups has been associated with improving iron levels in cereals, a similar outstanding achievement.

Farrer, the grand father of wheat breeding in the Australian context, would be pleased with the wheat breeders of 2012.

Salt Tolerant GM Wheat - Paddock Trials in 2010

Researchers expect to have genetically modified salt tolerant cereal lines in the paddock for trials next year, in a big boost for the 70pc of Australian farmers affected by salinity.

A project into salt tolerance, conducted jointly by the University of Adelaide and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) has had some promising results.

"I'm excited by what is happening – the preliminary results are looking good, we are confident we will be able to reduce the amount of salt that gets into the plant, which then limits the yield," project leader Professor Mark Tester said. He said there was huge application within the Australian grains industry for salt tolerant lines, with research out of the University of Adelaide showing that 70pc of the nation's grain belt was in some way affected by excess salinity. "We estimate that salinity could be costing up to $200 million annually, working on yield limitations of 10pc across 70pc of the cropping area."

This is a rapid update on the work reported here a few days ago, which really was a scientific report in a world leading journal. This now is real 'on the ground" progress.

While salt trolerance development is somewhat easier in speices such as rice and barley, and excellent progress is already occurring in these species, getting salt tolerance into wheat will be a major achievement.

Somehow I do not expect that the plants will be torn out of the ground. This type of development using GM technology can make a very big difference into crop yields - not by removing all of the 10% yield gap now existing, but maybe around half of that gap.

That will be a big payoff if true!!

media release here - http://www.adelaide.edu.au/lumen/issues/18921/news18944.html