Working closely with partners, our biologists are examining genes in rice and oilseed and mustard seed rape, with the ultimate aim of improving production of the crops.
Brassica species
Researchers from York’s Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), part of our Department of Biology, will work with scientists from the University of Delhi to improve the diversity of the Brassica species - oilseed rape, cultivated widely in the UK, and mustard rape which is grown extensively in India.
The crops, which diverged from a common ancestor, each have two genomes, of which one is common to both. The researchers will examine the genetic basis of trait variation, with a view to improving genetic diversity and ultimately the commercial production of both crops.
Professor Ian Bancroft, who will lead the research in CNAP, said: “What we are aiming to do is to provide the genetic platform to aid breeders to identify markers for important traits such as oil, protein and glucosinolates in both species. It is an extension of work we are already doing at York and will involve sharing genetic resources with colleagues in Delhi. There will also be a strong training element.”
Resistant rice
We’re also helping develop new varieties of rice more resistant to extremes of climate.
A team involving CNAP, the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI), and other staff from our Biology and Environment Departments, is working with scientists at Cornell University in the USA and the Central Rice Research Institute in India.
Led by York, the collaboration is aiming to develop new strains of rice to provide subsistence communities in India and elsewhere with more stable grain yields.
Rice is the staple food for more than two billion people, but a quarter of global rice production – and 45 per cent in India – is in rain-fed environments. With climate change predicted to cause more droughts and flooding in the future, the challenge is to develop rice strains that are both drought and submersion tolerant.
The researchers have gathered valuable genetic information about variations in ancestral wild species of rice and are identifying beneficial segments of the genome that help plants survive drought and flood. These segments from ancestral rice genomes have been bred into commercial rice varieties.
In parallel, researchers in India are conducting field trials using hundreds of lines of a commercial elite variety of rice carrying different segments of chromosome DNA from wild ancestors to gauge how these different lines grow under challenging conditions in the field. Using this field information, scientists in York and at Cornell are building a detailed genetic picture of what causes increased resistance to drought in specific lines of rice.
Professor Ian Graham, Principal Investigator of the research programme, said: “The aim of this project is not so much to increase yields overall but to stabilise them under environmentally challenging conditions such as drought or floods. It’s using modern molecular methods to produce more robust crops that are not going to fail one year and perform well the next but perform more predictably under those environmentally challenging conditions.”
Funding
The Brassica species project has been funded by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Department of Biotechnology of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
The rice research is funded by the BBSRC, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and, (through a grant to BBSRC) the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under the Sustainable Crop Production Research for International Development (SCPRID) programme, a joint initiative with the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
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