To produce best-quality bread and reduce greenhouse gases at the same time – this is the objective of a new collaborative project. Receipt of the funding notification from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) triggered the launch of an innovative project aimed at completely re-thinking the baking quality of wheat. Using state-of-the-art plant breeding and analytical methods it is set to lay the foundation stone for the baking wheat of tomorrow.
The wheat genome is very complex, comprising some 17 billion base pairs and more than 100,000 genes. The very thing that makes research on the most important cereal in Germany particularly demanding is also an enormous opportunity because large genetic diversity means great adaptability to new challenges. In the next three years, this is the opportunity the scientists want to grasp in a joint project. The aim is to use innovative methods of plant breeding to drive the development of wheat with improved protein use efficiency. In the future, this wheat should help to reduce the impact of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases on the climate and thus produce Germany’s bread in a more climate friendly way.
Varieties that are efficient in their protein use are varieties that exhibit good baking quality although they have a relatively low protein content. Until now, good baking quality in wheat has essentially been associated with high protein content in the grain, usually achieved by intensive nitrogen fertilisation. But the production of nitrogen fertiliser and the emissions of laughing gas that are generated by fertilising the fields are responsible for a high percentage of the greenhouse gases emitted by agriculture. The project partners’ new investigations point to a possible way out of the dilemma: they have shown that there are certain varieties that exhibit good baking quality despite a comparatively low protein content. Known as correlation breakers, they are now the focus of research and should mean that, in the future, more climate-friendly wheat with good baking quality can be produced with less use of nitrogen fertiliser.
In order to develop this research approach effectively in the coming three years, a unique research team involving five partner institutions has been formed: the Max Rubner-Institut, which is coordinating the collaboration, the Julius Kühn-Institut, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Bielefeld University and KWS Saat SE. KWS is contributing its expertise in breeding to the research project and waiving its share of the funding. Taken together, the team can boast state-of-the-art breeding technologies, analytical methods and model-based approaches to developing tomorrow’s baking wheat varieties. If the project is successful, it could benefit not only the climate and German farmers, millers, bakers and the country’s entire production chain but also have an impact going well beyond; from Ukraine to India, from Australia to Canada – everyone cultivates wheat.
The project is being coordinated by the Max Rubner-Institut (MRI). The Department of Safety and Quality of Cereals at the Detmold site is contributing its technical facilities and extensive experience in determining the quality of cereals. In the project, the harvested wheat will be milled using a standard technique and analysed to determine its properties that are relevant to baking suitability. Its bakeability will be established via standardised baking tests. The essential steps in grain processing will be displayed so that the expected results describe the wheat genotypes studied and their baking quality in a practical way. Moreover, with the aid of liquid chromatographic separation the protein fractions of gliadins, glutenins and glutenin macropolymers, which are important for baking quality, can be analysed and the starch quality determined.
Together with MRI, Bielefeld University (UniBi) is responsible for analysing proteins and metabolic products in wheat flour. The general amount of protein in wheat flour is not the criterion for good baking quality. The proteins that are decisive for baking behaviour need to be identified. When they have been identified, the corresponding genes can already be easily determined. This, in turn, means the varieties selected for grain breeding are the ones that contain a particularly large share of the desired proteins. The complex analysis of proteins and metabolites using various methods of mass spectrometry at Bielefeld University will be supported by the very well-equipped “Core Facility OMICS” (under construction).
By linking MRI’s data pool with Bielefeld University, candidate proteins that have a positive influence on baking quality in wheat with a relatively low protein content will be identified. At the same time, these data pools are essential for detecting genetic markers for baking quality, which is being undertaken by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and developing new varieties of wheat that are efficient in their protein use, the field of the collaborative partner KWS.
In the MAGIC-Klimaback alliance, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) is providing a novel, multi-parental winter wheat population and existing gene sequence data. MLU will also cultivate the winter wheat seeds in Halle under high and low nitrogen fertilisation conditions. The resulting data from the field cultivation in Halle (and, in parallel, at KWS) as well as the subsequent laboratory analyses at MRI and Bielefeld University will finally be evaluated at MLU by AI programmes. This will identify the plants and their genes that positively control the baking quality with moderate nitrogen fertilisation. At the end of the MAGIC-KlimaBack project, they will be available for breeding correlation breakers with reduced nitrogen requirements and high wheat baking quality.
KWS will conduct large-scale field trials and produce seeds under conventional and ecological conditions in the same environment to ensure comparable results for the research.
In the alliance, the Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) will evaluate the potential of the new wheat varieties that exhibit efficient protein use to reduce greenhouses gases. Process-based agroecosystem models will be used to simulate the interaction of genotype, management and environment in the cultivation of baking wheat across Germany over many years. Promising cultivation methods and fertilisation strategies for known varieties as well as for future varieties with improved protein use efficiency will be studied for various regions. The expected results should help to exploit the future potential for reducing greenhouse gases as effectively as possible.
The MAGIC-KlimaBack project started on 1 September 2024 and will run until December 2027. It being funded by the BMEL in the context of the research and innovation programme “Climate Protection in Agriculture” with 1,127,913 EUR.
Through its research and innovation programme launched in 2023, the BMEL is funding projects that aim to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
Press contact:
Dr. Iris Lehmann
Max Rubner-Institut
Federal Research Institute for Nutrition and Food
Tel. +49 (0)721 6625-271
Fax +49 (0)721 6625-111
iris.lehmann@~@mri.bund.de
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