Written by cpm
There’s an art to choosing potential winners from the hundreds of crosses a modern plant breeder makes every year, but increasingly genetics and clever science put confidence into the decisions made. CPM visits RAGT’s UK plant-breeding station to get an insight. When I look at wheat, what I see is diversity – all the phenotypes and all the potential. By Tom Allen-Stevens Rather as a schoolteacher might pass through the classroom, Célia Bequain passes through the ear rows of RAGT’s wheat-breeding program at Ickleton, Cambs. This is the very first venture out into the field for these wheat crosses, each row grown from just a single unique ear, and they’ve recently come into ear themselves. As senior wheat breeder, Célia’s checking to see how they perform, stooping occasionally to take a closer look, to straighten a flag leaf or inspect their stems. Plant breeders accelerates the programme through single seed descent, that allows them to grow two to three generations in a year. In one row, she bends a wheat ear and smiles. “It’s lovely to see the progeny of Skyfall. It may be the number one wheat but I know what I have here is an improvement on…
The post Grow the best wheat – The science of selection appeared first on cpm magazine.
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