Farms & Farm Machinery #401

News
The University of Queensland and InterGrain are
researching ways to boost the root systems and
improve yield sustainability of barley
It is about validating
what is the best for each
unique soil profi e and
environment
Root cause
A four-year research project will try to determine the perfect
barley root shape for varying soil profiles across Australia
Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ)
have teamed up with barley breeder InterGrain
to investigate ways of boosting root systems and
improving yield sustainability for Australia’s second
most popular grain.
With a total budget of $780,000, the four-year
project will use cutting-edge technology to
analyse root traits and fast-track barley breeding
for diverse production environments across most
Australian states.
Co-funded by an Australian Research Council
Linkage grant, the project will be conducted in
conjunction with Australian National University
(ANU), as one of 65 awardees in a $30 million grant
round first announced in April.
University of Queensland associate professor
Lee Hickey is heading up the project, and says the
research will provide the agricultural industry with
vital information it wouldn’t have been exposed
to before.
“For a century, plant breeders have focused
on what happens above the ground in terms
of adapting crops to diverse production
environments,” says Hickey.
“Barley breeders have traditionally focused on
breeding for traits that are visible such as plant
height and flowering time.
“Over the years, important root traits could have
been inadvertently selected, but there may be a lot
more we can achieve.”
Hickey says a deeper root system will improve
access to moisture during dry seasons on farms
with deep soils, whereas more vigorous root growth
in the upper soil layers could be advantageous
for crops grown in shallow soils reliant on rainfall
during growing seasons.
InterGrain barley breeder Dr Hannah Robinson
says the research will focus on creating an “optimum
root shape” for varying soil profiles across Australia.
20 Farms & Farm Machinery
This, she says, will help improve water and
nutrient extraction – and ultimately yield – in
Australia’s variable and changing climates.
“It is about validating what is the best for each
unique soil profile and environment, then breeding
varieties with optimised root systems adapted to
those environments across Australia,” she says.
Among the methods researchers will use to better
understand the crop is remote sensing technology,
including drones fitted with multi-spectral cameras
that will measure traits not visible to the naked eye,
including canopy temperature and indications of
how much water the crop is using.
Drone data will then be matched with soil coring
samples from the field, providing the research team
Prof Lee Hickey and Dr Hannah Robinson holding barley
varieties with different root system
with a better understanding of the relationship
between canopy traits and root traits.
Researchers will also use the CRISPR genomeediting
technology help researchers target the
key genes that influence root system development,
helping them engineer novel genetic variation.
“If we can successfully harness the new
technologies to improve root systems in barley,
this approach could also be used in breeding
programs for other major cereals such as wheat
and oats. Understanding the value of different
root traits is key,” Hickey says.