Farms & Farm Machinery #401
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
News<br />
The University of Queensland and InterGrain are<br />
researching ways to boost the root systems and<br />
improve yield sustainability of barley<br />
It is about validating<br />
what is the best for each<br />
unique soil profi e and<br />
environment<br />
Root cause<br />
A four-year research project will try to determine the perfect<br />
barley root shape for varying soil profiles across Australia<br />
Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ)<br />
have teamed up with barley breeder InterGrain<br />
to investigate ways of boosting root systems and<br />
improving yield sustainability for Australia’s second<br />
most popular grain.<br />
With a total budget of $780,000, the four-year<br />
project will use cutting-edge technology to<br />
analyse root traits and fast-track barley breeding<br />
for diverse production environments across most<br />
Australian states.<br />
Co-funded by an Australian Research Council<br />
Linkage grant, the project will be conducted in<br />
conjunction with Australian National University<br />
(ANU), as one of 65 awardees in a $30 million grant<br />
round first announced in April.<br />
University of Queensland associate professor<br />
Lee Hickey is heading up the project, and says the<br />
research will provide the agricultural industry with<br />
vital information it wouldn’t have been exposed<br />
to before.<br />
“For a century, plant breeders have focused<br />
on what happens above the ground in terms<br />
of adapting crops to diverse production<br />
environments,” says Hickey.<br />
“Barley breeders have traditionally focused on<br />
breeding for traits that are visible such as plant<br />
height and flowering time.<br />
“Over the years, important root traits could have<br />
been inadvertently selected, but there may be a lot<br />
more we can achieve.”<br />
Hickey says a deeper root system will improve<br />
access to moisture during dry seasons on farms<br />
with deep soils, whereas more vigorous root growth<br />
in the upper soil layers could be advantageous<br />
for crops grown in shallow soils reliant on rainfall<br />
during growing seasons.<br />
InterGrain barley breeder Dr Hannah Robinson<br />
says the research will focus on creating an “optimum<br />
root shape” for varying soil profiles across Australia.<br />
20 <strong><strong>Farm</strong>s</strong> & <strong>Farm</strong> <strong>Machinery</strong><br />
This, she says, will help improve water and<br />
nutrient extraction – and ultimately yield – in<br />
Australia’s variable and changing climates.<br />
“It is about validating what is the best for each<br />
unique soil profile and environment, then breeding<br />
varieties with optimised root systems adapted to<br />
those environments across Australia,” she says.<br />
Among the methods researchers will use to better<br />
understand the crop is remote sensing technology,<br />
including drones fitted with multi-spectral cameras<br />
that will measure traits not visible to the naked eye,<br />
including canopy temperature and indications of<br />
how much water the crop is using.<br />
Drone data will then be matched with soil coring<br />
samples from the field, providing the research team<br />
Prof Lee Hickey and Dr Hannah Robinson holding barley<br />
varieties with different root system<br />
with a better understanding of the relationship<br />
between canopy traits and root traits.<br />
Researchers will also use the CRISPR genomeediting<br />
technology help researchers target the<br />
key genes that influence root system development,<br />
helping them engineer novel genetic variation.<br />
“If we can successfully harness the new<br />
technologies to improve root systems in barley,<br />
this approach could also be used in breeding<br />
programs for other major cereals such as wheat<br />
and oats. Understanding the value of different<br />
root traits is key,” Hickey says.