Transformation of Elite Wheat Varieties for Improved end-use Qualities: Modification of Gibberellin Levels and Pre-Harvest Sprouting

Abstract

Wheat was the last of the agriculturally important cereals to be transformed. The ability to introduce genes into wheat remains a technically demanding and relatively inefficient process, mainly confined to culture-responsive but commercially irrelevant genotypes such as Bobwhite. IACR-Rothamsted has developed robust transformation protocols, and in recent years, produced over four hundred independently transformed wheat lines in a wide range of commercial varieties, including Imp, Buster and Rialto. In this paper we summarise our wheat transformation protocols and describe our initial findings from two transformation projects that investigate the role of key proteins in regulating gibberellin biosynthesis and dormancy which have potential to improve end-use quality of bread wheat by reducing pre-harvest sprouting (PHS).