Award details

The Smart Carbohydrate Centre

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA291
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Alison Smith
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	317,081
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/09/2007
End date	31/12/2010
Duration	40 months

Abstract

The nature of the starch in barley and wheat seeds is likely to influence profoundly the quality of flour and malt, the health-promoting properties of foods and the industrial value of extracted starch. However, little is known about the impact of genetic variation for starch properties on these uses of cereal grains, and this potential source of useful variation for breeding improved varieties of wheat and barley is not being exploited. To address this problem, we propose a systematic approach to the generation, characterisation and exploitation of variation in starch properties in barley and wheat. For barley we have a large collection of starch mutants, some of which have clear commercial potential. We will characterise the starches of these lines, and provide the information to an advisory Consortium of umbrella organisations of breeders and end-users of cereals. Advice from the Consortium will be used to prioritise which mutations to take forward. For the selected mutations we will use gene-based mapping and transcript-based cloning to discover the mutant genes, then introduce them into elite lines of barley using haplotype tags and mapped SSRs. The elite lines will be further analysed in collaboration with the Consortium at the BC2F4 stage. Major outputs will be prebreeding material with starch characteristics of specific value to end-users, likely to include brewers, distillers, and manufacturers of food and biodegradable packaging and plastics. For wheat we will use TILLING to select knockout mutations in the three genes encoding isoamylase1, then combine the mutations in a single line. We will initiate further TILLING for mutations in other genes likely to affect starch properties, and characterise starches in mutant diploid wheats to provide more information on sources of variation.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Industrial Biotechnology, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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