GSTT SEMINAR: Dr Cristobal Uauy, John Innes Centre - Title: 'Can wheat genomics help alleviate food insecurity?'
1:00pm - 2:00pm /
Monday 31st October 2016
/ Venue: Lecture Theatre 1 Life Sciences Building
- Peter Walley
- Admission: Free
- Book now
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Wheat is grown across continents and adapts to a wide range of environments. It is part of our culture and we depend on it every day. Today each one of us will eat on average 50 wheat plants, providing us with 20% of the calories and 25% of the protein we consume.
During the Green Revolution, global wheat yields rose by over 3% per annum keeping pace with global demand. However, the rate of advance has declined below 1% per annum since 1990. This has led to global food insecurity as current trends are insufficient to meet future demands for wheat.
Urgent action is therefore required to produce enough nutritious food for a growing population in a sustainable manner. We need to do better, and we need to do this now.
Recent advances in genomics provide a new opportunity to use science-based solutions to address this problem. Wheat is complex due to its large genome and it's polyploid nature: it has three almost identical copies of every gene! I’ll describe how we are using this to our advantage in an attempt to uncover the hidden potential of wheat which has not previously been exploited in modern breeding.
During the Green Revolution, global wheat yields rose by over 3% per annum keeping pace with global demand. However, the rate of advance has declined below 1% per annum since 1990. This has led to global food insecurity as current trends are insufficient to meet future demands for wheat.
Urgent action is therefore required to produce enough nutritious food for a growing population in a sustainable manner. We need to do better, and we need to do this now.
Recent advances in genomics provide a new opportunity to use science-based solutions to address this problem. Wheat is complex due to its large genome and it's polyploid nature: it has three almost identical copies of every gene! I’ll describe how we are using this to our advantage in an attempt to uncover the hidden potential of wheat which has not previously been exploited in modern breeding.