NIAB Gets Grant for Wheat Transformation

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in the United Kingdom has been awarded a five-year grant of £620,000 to provide a community resource for wheat transformation. Funded by the BBSRC's Biological and Bioinformatic Resources fund (BBR), the project will give UK plant scientists free access to the public wheat transformation system available in the world.

Project leader Dr. Emma Wallington says: "At NIAB we can add a new gene into a wheat cell, which already contains an estimated 150,000 genes, and regenerate a new 'fine-tuned' wheat plant. This is an important tool which helps us understand what effect the gene has on the plant and is much more precise than traditional breeding techniques. It allows a functional analysis of genes for research and, importantly, a viable route to breeding new traits for commercial exploitation through traditional breeding techniques."

BBSRC scientists will also fund the transformation of 50 novel genes, producing around 30 unique transgenic wheat plants for each gene. This will be one of the largest experiments undertaken in wheat transformation and will test genes from a wide range of plant species.

Check out http://www.niab.com/news_and_events/article/262 for the full details.