The gap between blue sky science and commercial breeders may have inhibited progress in crop breeding – but a project is bridging this gap to stimulate the development of new cereal varieties with valuable starch properties.

Funded by the BBSRC, the Smart Carbohydrate Centre is a three-year project at NIAB TAG and the John Innes Centre. It involved identifying novel starch genes in barley varieties typically grown in Scandinavia and Japan and putting them into a barley variety that grows well in UK conditions.

Research scientist Fiona Leigh explains that the novel carbohydrates include waxy starch, lines with low starch and those with highly soluble starch. The result is more than 300 lines that can then be used with in barley breeding programmes

Longer term, she sees it leading to new varieties in barley, and eventually in wheat, that offer growers a premium when grown for specific markets.

“Distillers and brewers can take away the samples at our open day and if they find one they like. It can then be added into a commercial breeding programme,” says Dr Leigh.