Crops

IBERS’ research in plant breeding focuses on a number of crops due to its unique position and history of long term alliances with commercial partners. 

Grains for Health

Oats provide health benefits as well as a plethora of novel food, feed and other products and provide biodiversity in rotations. Over 99% of winter oats grown in the UK in 2024 were from varieties bred at IBERS in Aberystwyth and marketed by our long term partner Senova 

Pulses (field beans and peas) introduce a much-needed nitrogen fixing crop for arable rotations and give a high-protein product for human nutrition and animal feed that is more sustainable than imported soya alternatives. We currently have seven winter field bean varieties on the UK National Variety list which are marketed through a long- term agreement with commercial partner UK Pulses and comprise over 90% of the market share of seed production. Winter bean varieties developed at IBERS include varieties with the highest yield, highest protein content, earliest maturing, largest seed size and highest disease resistance on the PGRO Descriptive List.

Genetic Resources and the Seed Biobank

Underpinning the plant breeding programmes is a large collection of ex-situ conserved germplasm mainly consisting of our mandate crop species. This collection is a constituent of the nationwide UK Plant Genetic Resources network. This is housed in the new Seed Biobank Controlled Environment facility which also includes bulk seed processing capability where the early generations of IBERS varieties are processed, quality controlled and maintained for further multiplication by our commercial partners.

In addition, we have established an apple and pear heritage variety orchard. This is a  genetically unique collection of apple and pear germplasm, much of which originated from Welsh farms, is being collected, grown, conserved and evaluated for potential future use in helping to meet biodiversity improvement and climate change mitigation challenges, as well as providing options for farm income diversity strategies.
 
Novel uses of crops include protein extraction from forage for monogastric feedstock. The quality of plant breeding at IBERS is reflected in the consistent prevalence of IBERS varieties on recommended lists in the UK, and the institute is continuously registering new varieties in all crops with the CPVO to allow for commercial exploitation.

Biotechnology

To underpin our understanding of gene structure and function, particularly for the genetic control of recombination and other breeding-related traits, we maintain a transformation pipeline in a number of species including Brachypodium and Lolium perenne. This pipeline also facilitates the development and optimisation of Crispr-based gene editing in those species.

Breeding Goals

Long term goals in breeding that require inputs from fundamental research include: 

• Incorporation of genomics assisted breeding to accelerate genetic gain.
• Exploiting genome sequence data to better understand traits and direct crosses
• Use of new technology (drones, machine learning, AI) for phenotyping in the field.
• Breeding targets for zero carbon and climate friendly farming – carbon sequestration, root   growth, resilience to climate change, persistency. 
• Improvement of nutrient use efficiency to reduce inputs.
• Breeding forages with improved quality traits that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. 
• Novel uses of forage crops, pulses and oats, such as extraction of protein for monogastric feed
  and plant-based diets. 
• Improved resilience of grain quality traits (oats) as demanded by millers and end-users. 
• Multistress tolerance & resilience to sudden adverse weather events (drought, waterlogging). 
• Improvement of breeding efficiency (accuracy of selection) using high throughput phenotyping. 
• Pre-breeding to identify novel alleles and increase genetic diversity.
• Understanding of adaptation- matching phenology to environment.
• Development of benchmarks for farmers and crop growth models.
• The addressing of the agricultural productivity gap through improvements in crop yield and yield stability.
• New methods of plant breeding (gene editing, speed breeding) and recombination control