Institut für Strategien und Folgenabschätzung
The overall project objective is to use innovative plant breeding methods to advance the development of winter wheat varieties that exhibit improved protein use efficiency (ProtUE) and high baking quality in organic and conventional crop production systems. The project contributes to more resource efficiency in terms of N fertilisation and processing suitability of bread wheat and thus opens up important potentials for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction in crop production. Wheat cultivation for baking purposes is essential for many farms because of its excellent market performance and it depends strongly on variety selection. New wheat varieties with improved baking properties and increased ProtUE are essential building blocks in the medium term to achieve efficient, sustainable and climate-friendly agricultural systems with substantially reduced fertiliser use and minimised N surpluses and carbon footprint.The scientific objectives of the project are to decipher the relationship between low to medium crude protein content and high baking quality in winter wheat at the genetic, proteomic and metabolomic level. Based on these data, it is aim to identify molecular markers for ProtUE and baking ability in winter wheat, making them usable for breeding purposes. Finally, it is goal to evaluate the resulting GHG mitigation potential across Germany and exploit this potential in the medium term. These aims will be achieved by characterising genetic differences with respect to development of baking quality in the MAGIC-WHEAT population WM-800: phenotypic parameters of baking quality will be associated with DNA, proteomic and metabolomic data and used to identify markers that correlate with high ProtNE and baking ability. Gene effects found will be validated in pairs of heterogeneous inbred lines (HIFs) that are generally available to breeders and that are integrated into the KWS wheat breeding programme for organic and conventional farming.
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
