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Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics

Applied Wheat Genomics Innovation Lab

For information on past activities please contact:

Kansas State University
Department of Plant Pathology
4024 Throckmorton Plant Sciences Center
1712 Claflin Road
Manhattan, KS 66506
+1-785-532-6176

Impact

Breaking New Ground: Field Trials in Bangladesh

 Bangladesh

Since 2013, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics has been implementing and evaluating
replicated wheat field trials in Mexico, India and Pakistan. In 2015, the team was able to break ground in neighboring
Bangladesh, successfully establishing the largest wheat testing nursery in the country.

Mohammad Mokhlesur Rahman, a graduate student from Kansas State University through the USAID BHEARD program,
led the initiative to establish the new trials, train researchers, inform area farmers, researchers and policy makers, and collect data throughout the season.

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Better bread: How researchers are using genomics to predict bread quality and accelerate wheat variety development
CP2 

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development Feed the Future Initiative, a team of breeders and geneticists at K-State and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), are using DNA markers to predict important quality traits for bread wheat, such as dough strength and loaf volume.

Historically, the main focus of wheat breeding has been grain yield and the selection of lines with the best performance and disease resistance. Quality traits are usually evaluated at the very end of the selection cycle due to high cost and the large quantity of grain needed for testing. The typical wheat breeding cycle takes eight to 10 years – a lengthy amount of time to wait before being able to test the quality of bread.

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