AUSTRALIAN wheat breeders have been equipped with new tools to assist the development of varieties which, at harvest, are less likely to be downgraded in quality due to grain defects.
Research funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has produced new germplasm, screening methods and selection tools to speed up the production of varieties less susceptible to pre-harvest sprouting, late-maturity alpha-amylase (LMA) and black point (BP).
In seasons with extreme damage, sprouting and black point can cost Australian growers hundreds of millions of dollars.
LMA is genetic defect which, like sprouting, may be triggered by environmental conditions and results in the production of alpha-amylase - an enzyme which can degrade grain starch - measured by ‘falling number’ tests at delivery.
But unlike sprouting, there is no physical evidence of the defect on the grain itself.
University of Adelaide ‘pre-breeders’, under a GRDC project, have developed new screening processes which are helping plant breeders eliminate LMA.
LMA screening is now an important step in variety classification and has greatly reduced the risk that new varieties posing a high risk would be released to growers.
“This is significant because LMA has traditionally been very difficult to screen for and get rid of,” University of Adelaide Associate Professor Daryl Mares said.
