Application of biotechnologies in improving the quality of rice and wheat presentation by Melissa Fitzgerald, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

1. Application of Biotechnologies to
Improve the Quality of Rice and Wheat
Melissa Fitzgerald and Dara Daygon
School of Agriculture and Food Science
University of Queensland

3. Cluster of Trends
• Population growth
• Feeding the world
• Urbanisation
• Competition for land
• Resource Scarcity
• Climate Change
• Ecosystems in decline
• Water Scarce World
• Growing Middle Class
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060
Population('000)
Year
Africa
Asia
Europe
Latin America and
the Caribbean
Northern America
Oceania
thefuturescentre.org/

4. Increased Middle Class - $$

5. Population
Growth
Climate
Change
Middle
Classes
Confluence of Trend Clusters
BIOTECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

6. Biotechnology
Applies scientific and
engineering principles
to living organisms to
produce products of
value to society.
– Compounds
– Pathways
– Proteins
– Complex traits
understood
– Genes identified
Successful
application of
knowledge
High yielding plant than maintains
yield under stress, with nutritious
and delicious grains

7. If the gene is within the species
• Cross
• Use genotyping to maintain
background.
• Select progeny with most
background of desired parent,
and with gene.
• Backcross to ensure
recapturing genetic
background as well as
introgressed gene.
chr

8. Equipping the plant with a foreign gene
Transformation Genome Editing
Insertion of
the gene into
a host
genome

9. Golden Rice
• Equipped with a gene
to activate the
synthesis of beta
carotene.
• Biofortify the grain to
provide Vitamin A,
prevent blindness and
assist in cognitive
function.

10. Foreign genes not yet welcome

11. Greenpeace

13. Examples of biotech projects
Rice
• Submergence tolerance
• Drought resistance
• Disease resistance
• Herbicide tolerance
• Beta Carotene in grains
• High iron grains
• Folate in grains
• Low GI grains
• High RS in grains
Wheat
• Salinity tolerance
• Disease resistance
• Herbicide tolerance
• High iron grains
• Low GI in grains
• High RS in grains
• Gluten quality
Foreign genes

15. Identifying a major quality trait in rice

16. Objectives
• With a sensory panel, determine the descriptors
for quality jasmine rice
• Using metabolomics techniques, determine the
volatile compounds that associate with those
descriptors
• Using a panel of 400 diverse rices,ranging in
fragrance from weak to strong, identify QTLs for
the amount of 2AP and for the other compounds
of jasmine aroma.

17. Sensory profiling
• Sensory panel trained and
assessed aroma of many
rices – jasmine and non-
jasmine
• Used 10 descriptors
• Used standards to
determine strength of each
descriptor.

18. Volatile compounds from rice measured by
GCGCTOFMS
heat
flour
Cryogrind rice Volatilise compounds
by heating and
agitating
Separate compounds
on 2 columns, mass
and charge

19. Genotyping done by sequencing

20. Sensory descriptors clustered

21. Compounds
associating with
unpleasant aroma
Compounds
associating with
pleasant aroma

22. Important compounds
Good jasmine fragrance
• 2 acetyl 1 pyrroline
• 2 acetyl 1 pyrrole
• Pyrrole
• Analyte 4 – isomer 2AP
(5M6O234THP)
• Analyte 5- 1-pyrroline
• Limonene
• Acetoin
• Acetophenone
Nasty fragrance
• Indole
• Furans
• Ketones
• Thiols
• Sulphoxide

23. Delivering to Breeders
• Identified parents
carrying the QTLs for
high fragrance
• A panel of markers
converted to SNPs
enabling tracking of
the QTLs using new
SNP technology.

24. Remembering eating quality

25. Acknowledgements