This document summarizes key points from a presentation on bringing together genome-enabled breeding and science to address major trends in food and nutrition security, health, climate change, and technology. It discusses how genome platforms can accelerate plant breeding to develop crops with improved traits like disease resistance, drought tolerance, and nutritional content. These tools are important for meeting the growing global demand for food amidst challenges like climate change and ensuring diverse, healthy diets. The presentation highlights Australian research applying techniques like genome sequencing, gene editing, and phenomics to develop new crop varieties and address issues in wheat, barley, and other crops.

1. Bringing science and market trends
together via genome‐enabled breeding
John Manners, Director CSIRO Agriculture and Food

2. Talk outline
• Megatrends
• Food & nutritional security
• Health and nutrition
• Climate change adaptation
• Game‐changing technologies
• Genome platforms for breeding
• Innovation systems

3. We Live In Exponential Times

4. Mega‐trends
in Agriculture and
Food
Stefan Hajkowicz and Sandra Eady CSIRO

5. Technology market trend matrix
Impact and value of technology
Market
Penetrance
Agrochemicals
GM
Biologicals
Digital
Farming
GE

6. Dynamic innovation systems moving
science to market + consumer acceptance
PUBLIC OPINION & CONSUMERS

7. Nature, April 2016
Nature Biotech, June 2016
The Guardian 2014
Will gene editing be easily delivered?

8. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050
Food demand (kcal/year x 1015)
The food demand challenge – looking forward to 2050

9. 0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
1970 1990 2010 2030 2050
Food demand (kcal/year x 1015)
Balancing food supply and demand into the future
Reducing
the
Demand
Filling the
Production
Gap
Sustaining
productive
capacity
Keating et al (2014) Food wedges: framing the global food demand and supply challenge towards
2050. Global Food Security.

10. Keating et al (2014) Global Food Security.
Reducing
Demand
Sustaining
productive
capacity
Filling
Production
Gap
Reducing waste along
the food chain
Reducing overconsumption
in human diets
A balanced livestock
component in diets
Smart biofuel
technologies and policies Expanding land area
for agriculture
Expanding irrigation
Expanding
aquaculture
Closing yield gaps in
existing farming systems
New more intensive
farming systems
Advancing crop and livestock
genetics beyond current potential Maintaining pest resistance and
biosecurity / food safety
Avoiding land and
water degradation
Climate change
mitigation
Climate change adaptation
Wedges of a global food security “rainbow” pie....

11. Global nutritional diversity of agriculture
11 |
Mario Herrero, The Lancet, Planetary Health Issue April 2017 e33‐e42
We need powerful genetic tools for a wide diversity of crops, not just corn and soy!

12. A Tide of Economic Opportunity
Over 2‐3 billion emerging middle class in Asia
Growth in Food Imports into China

13. Middle class consumer food trends will grow in Asia ….
….AND DRIVE FOOD INNOVATION
HEALTH
FOOD SAFETY HAS TO BE A GIVEN
ETHICAL
INDULGENCE
CONVENIENCE
HEALTH WILL
CONTINUE TO
BE A DOMINANT
TREND

14. Healthy food is increasingly important, but will they pay?
Source: Nielsen Global Health & Wellness Survey, Q3 2014
Prosumer = professional consumer/self focused
Elizabeth Eastland and Market Vision team

15. New grains for human health
Dietary-related Diseases : Cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, Obesity
and Weight Control, Gut Health, Colon cancer, Coeliac disease..
High amylose
wheat
BARLEYmaxTM
Starch
Protein
Poly‐
saccharides
Gluten‐free
cereals
Novel fibre wheat
Low glycaemic
index
Large bowel
fermentation
Lower
cholesterol
Coeliac‐friendly
Gluten avoiders
Micro‐
nutrients Thick aleurone
cereals
Nutrient deficiencies
ARISTA
Phil Larkin and Crispin Howitt teams
Much use of induced mutation in this area – ripe for gene editing approaches!

16. Growth in agricultural productivity growth is slowing?
“Productivity isn’t everything,“Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything”
- Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winning economist
0
50
100
150
200
250
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Agricultural productivity
Broadacre
Cropping
Mixed cropping‐
livestock
Australian Agricultural Productivity
Grain yield
(kg/ha)
Grain yield
(kg/ha)
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
International wheat yields
ABARE & Grassini et al (2013) Nature Communications 4: 2918

17. The climate change challenge in Agriculture
Year
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Rainfalldeviationfromaverage(mm)
-100
0
100
200
110 year rainfall pattern in
SW Australia
27% decline in wheat yield potential in 25 years
but actual yields balanced by closing yield gaps
Mapping wheat ‘yield potential’
reduction 1990‐2015
Hochman et al Global Change Biology 2017 and The Conversation 2017

18. Wild type
Mutant
Plant Phenomics: breeding plants with precision
LiDAR
• Canopy height
• Fractional ground cover
• Biomass index
• Greenness vertical distribution
GreenSeeker
• NDVI (density & greenness)
• High‐res RGB
• Plant & head counts
Fly‐over & fixed
imaging and sensors
Phenomobile‐Lite
Xavier Sirault and team ‐ HRPPC, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia

19. Novel materials: Sprayable biodegradable
polymers for water conservation
Reduces soil evaporation and increase plant
transpiration…
Easy to apply
Suitable for use in all cropping systems
Will replace non-
biodegradable
polluting plastics
Keith Bristow and Phil Casey teams in CSIRO Ag & Food & Manufacturing
Polymer*
Treatment
Water
applied
(ML/ha)
Water
productivity
(t/ML)
Increase in
water
productivity
over control
1. Rockmelons
2014
2.98 18.79 32%
2. Rockmelons
2015
3.52 9.97 22%
3. Sorghum
2015
1.76 10.85 34%
22‐34% improvement in field water productivity

20. N2
NH3
Australian Examples of Transformative GM Projects
Pest‐resistant legumes Biofortified foods
Novel oils Fixing Heterosis
through ApomixisBroad‐spectrum
Disease Resistance
Nitrogen‐
Fixing Plants
Boosting photosynthesis
USAID/Rockerfeller
Amfora

21. Renewables challenge
e.g. the need to increase plant
oil production
2016 2050
250
MT160
MT
250
To keep pace
with growing
food oil needs
Industrial
Food use
To provide surplus
for significant
petroleum and
petro chemical
replacement

22. Leaf oils
A potential game
changer for global
oil production

23. Sustainable supples of Omega‐3 oils from GM canola
Surinder Singh an oils team
Omega‐3 oils for growing global aquaculture
industry – in the past 2 years aquaculture
protein production has exceeded that of both
wild catch fish and beef

24. Stem rust Leaf rust Stripe rust
Protecting yield: GM disease resistance
based on wheat rust breakthroughs
Multiple races of each rust fungus,
Air‐borne spores, biotrophic lifestyle
Evans Lagudah and rust team

25. Two types of rust resistance
Multi‐stage resistance
(eg Sr33, Sr45)
Race specific often ephemeral
R R R S
Adult plant resistance
(eg Lr34, Lr67, Sr2)
Durable broad resistance and non‐race specific
R S
Evans Lagudah and rust team

26. Breakthroughs in resistance gene cloning
26 |

27. Conventional and GM R gene stacking options
Yr17
Sr26 Sr38
Sr33
Sr45
Lr67
Yr17
Sr26
Sr38
Sr33Sr45
Lr67
Lr34
Lr34
Lr34 Sr45 Lr67Sr33 + moreSr22
Conventional R‐gene stacks fall apart during
crossing – R genes act as perfect markers
GM multi R‐gene cassette at a single locus
Evans Lagudah and rust team

28. CORN
SORGHUM
RICE
Wheat Lr34 gene confers resistance to multiple
pathogens in diverse hosts
University of Zurich, Univ
Queensland, Univ Sydney,
Univ S Qld, Univ. Hong
Kong, IPK Gatersleben,
ENS, Lyon, ZAAS Hangzou,
IRRI, CIRAD, RWTH Aachen
Evans Lagudah and rust team

29. Schaeffer & Nakata Plant Science 2015
Gene editing – new precision resistance engineering
Mlo gene edited resistance to
powdery mildew in hexaploid wheatGene editing process
immunity
Gao et al 2014
March
2017

30. Wheat
(17000 Mb)
Arabidopsis
(125 Mb)
Rice (430 Mb)
Barley (5400 Mb)
Genome‐data driven breeding now a reality
Jen Taylor CSIRO Ag&F Bioinformatics team

31. Pest and disease
resistance
Abiotic stress
tolerance
Intrinsic yield
Water Productivity
Grain quality
Harvest Index
Healthy grains
Phenology
Wheat
Trait/Genome
Platform

32. Foundation: field to gene pipeline using MAGIC
population, derived near isogenic lines & mutant screens
Field
Glasshouse & Laboratory
MAGIC population, QTLs and NILs
Genome & RNA-seq for gene discovery,
mutation screens and GM function
testing
X X X X
X X
X
X
e.g. Boden et al Nature Plants 2015; Barrero et al. Genome Biology 2015
Mutants
Allelic
series
Gene
editing
in future
MAGIC
crosses

33. TECHNOLOGY
™
Weed
Management
Insect
Management
Virus
Control
Bee
Health
MICROBIALS
BioYield BioControl
BioFertility/
Inoculants
Plant Growth
Regulators
Disease
Management
Insect
Management
AGRICULTURAL BIOLOGICALS PRODUCTS:
• Help farmers to
improve crop health
and productivity.
• Are derived from naturally-
occurring solutions such as
microbials, plant extracts,
beneficial insects and other
organic materials.
• May complement or replace
traditional fertilizers and
chemicals, thereby helping
to lower the environmental
impact of agriculture.
SEED APPLIED
SOLUTIONS
FOLIAR
APPLICATIONS
PRECISION
AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Biologicals Platforms
Sustainable Solutions
33
Tony May, Monsanto

34. “Business opportunities in the implementation
of the SDGs related to food could be worth
US$2.3 trillion annually for the private sector by
2030”
“More than two thirds of the value of the
opportunities, and over 90 per cent of the
potential job creation, is in developing
countries”
Valuing the SDG Prize in Food & Agriculture. Business and
Sustainable Development Commission, 2016.
Public and private convergence…
Australia’s farmers feed around 60 million people each day
.....Australian innovation can feed many more

35. Places are limited
Gene editing of Crops Workshop 28‐30th Nov 2017
Kiama, NSW
Australia
If interested in attending:
Please email
Steve.Jobling@csiro.au
By 1st July 2017
Places will be selected based on relevance of
work area, willingness to give a presentation
and to ensure broad representation of senior
and junior scientists across Australia.
Registration details will then follow

36. Thank you
Thanks to all the amazing research teams at CSIRO and our
partners that have contributed material to this presentation