Rothamsted Research Submits Application for Autumn-sown Wheat Inclusion of its GM Fied Trial

Rothamsted Research has submitted an application to the United Kingdom's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to extend its current genetically modified (GM) wheat field trial to include additional autumn-sown cadenza wheat. Rothamsted scientists believe it would be advantageous to gain further data from their experiment, in wheat planted at a different time of year and under different weather conditions with different aphid populations. This will give them additional data under a more diverse range of environmental conditions.

Because the UK's temperate climate permits wheat plant growth during the winter, Cadenza wheat can be sown in either the autumn or the spring and both sowings are harvested in August/September. As such, the extension of the experiment will further increase the relevance to UK farmers and those in other temperate climates by covering a greater range environmental variability. This weather variability has been particularly evident in the UK in the past 12 months.

View Rothamsted Research's news release at http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/PressReleases.php?PRID=219.