Exploiting landrace diversity for more efficient and resilient wheat

Context

Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world, but as the population grows and the climate changes, we will need to develop more resilient, nutrient and water-efficient varieties.

The research

We are looking for novel sources of abiotic stress tolerance in a diverse panel of landrace wheat varieties, which harbour a wealth of genetic and phenotypic variation. Using transcriptome analysis, we are identifying potential gene targets conferring increased resistance to abiotic stress, and attempting to understand how these genes are regulated under normal and stress conditions.