Biotech Updates

JHI Receives £1.25M Grant for Barley Research

May 11, 2012

The James Hutton Institute (JHI) has been awarded  a £1.25 million research grant to be utilized in projects that will help improve the quality and reliability of malting barley, increase knowledge of root development, and  identify disease resistance in barley. The institute was able to secure four projects among the other nine crop research projects which the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Scottish government, and 14 plant breeders, food processors, and farming companies will be funding.

Dr. Bill Thomas, an expert in barley genetics at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, said that the funding will help them in working towards improved crop varieties that could result to better yield that require lesser inputs.

One of the projects is to improve the processability of barley through the identification of DNA markers that can be used to eliminate potential varieties that have processing problems in barley breeding programs. Another project involves the identification and selection of new sources of resistance to Rhynchosporium, or leaf scald, which can be useful to barley breeding.

The Crop Improvement Research Club, a £7.06 million, five-year partnership, was established between the BBSRC, the Scottish Government and a consortium of leading companies last April 24. Its main goal is to support different research projects that are geared towards the development of improved crop varieties.

Read the news at http://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/%C2%A3125-million-cereals-research. Know more about the Crop Improvement Research Club at http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/food-security/2012/120424-pr-circ-deliver-better-crops.aspx.