15AGRITECHCAT3 improved crop breeding programmes through advanced pollination control bag materials technology

  • Clifton-Brown, John (PI)
  • Hayes, Charlotte (Researcher)

Project: Externally funded research

Project Details

Description

The project will investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of developing an innovative pollination control bag to improve crop breeding programmes used for three important agricultural crops: sugar beet, wheat and Miscanthus. Existing technologies are unfit for purpose and their use can be detremental to plant health and seed yield, and increase disease incidence and expense. A range of materials (films and nonwoven), fibre technologies and techniques will be investigated and trialled with academic and commercial breeders with the aim of developing the next generation of pollination control bags to improve breeding outcomes, reduce losses caused by poor temperature and humidity control within the bag, and increase seed yield. This will reduce costs for plant breeders and accelerate the rate at which new commercial crop varieties (with improved yields, drought, disease or pest resistance, and higher crop quality), can be discovered and brought to market.

Layman's description

Developing new varieties of Miscanthus (a grass used as an energy crop) requires pollination between parent plants with different characteristics. A good way of controlling this process is to carry it out within an isolated environment known as a crossing bag. These bags need to allow light penetration, control humidity and allow air circulation whilst preventing other pollen from entering the bag. The bags are conventionally made from a paper-based material. The bags have a tendency to rip easily and are prone to slug infestation, which means that the environment is no longer sufficiently isolated to ensure a controlled cross pollination. Alternative materials for crossing bags that do not have these problems therefore need to be developed. Current bags have the advantage of being relatively cheap but are single use; if bags made from alternative materials have superior properties (e.g. slug proof, better light penetration, temperature and humidity control), the greater seed set would make these alternative bag materials economically viable as they would considerably improve the efficiency of a plant breeding programme.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date12 Jun 201511 Dec 2016

Funding

  • Innovate UK (BB/N00471X/1): £76,648.16

UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land

Fingerprint

Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • Breeding progress and preparedness for mass‐scale deployment of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar

    Clifton-Brown, J., Harfouche, A., Casler, M., Jones, H., MacAlpine, W. J., Murphy-Bokern, D., Smart, L., Adler, A., Ashman, C. R., Awty-Carroll, D., Bastien, C., Bopper, S., Botnari, V., Brancourt-Hulmel, M., Chen, Z., Clark, L., Cosentino, S., Dalton, S., Davey, C. & Dolstra, O. & 39 others, Donnison, I., Flavell, R., Greef, J. M., Hanley, S., Hastings, A., Hertzberg, M., Hsu, T. W., Huang, L., Iurato, A., Jensen, E., Jin, X., Jørgensen, U., Kiesel, A., Kim, D.-S., Liu, J., McCalmont, J. P., McMahon, G. G., Mos, M., Robson, P., Sacks, E. J., Sandu, A., Scalici, G., Schwarz, K., Scordia, D., Shafiei, R., Shield, I. F., Slavov, G., Stanton, B., Swaminathan, K., Taylor, G., Torres, A. F., Trindade, L. M., Tschaplinski, T., Tuskan, J., Yamada, T., Yu, C. Y., Zalesny, R.-F., Zong, J. & Lewandowski, I., 01 Jan 2019, In: GCB Bioenergy. 11, 1, p. 118-151 34 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
    File
    124 Citations (Scopus)
    323 Downloads (Pure)
  • Investigating the potential of novel non-woven fabrics for efficient pollination control in plant breeding

    Clifton-Brown, J., Senior, H., Purdy, S., Horsnell, R., Lankamp, B., Müennekhoff, A.-K., Virk, D., Guillemois, E., Chetty, V., Cookson, A., Girdwood, S., Clifton-Brown, G., Tan, M. L. M., Awty-Carroll, D. & Bentley, A., 28 Sept 2018, In: PLoS ONE. 13, 9, 0204728.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
    File
    5 Citations (Scopus)
    223 Downloads (Pure)
  • Progress in upscaling Miscanthus biomass production for the European bio-economy with seed-based hybrids

    Clifton-Brown, J., Hastings, A., Mos, M., McCalmont, J., Ashman, C., Awty-Carroll, D., Cerazy, J., Chiang, Y.-C., Cosentino, S., Cracroft-Eley, W., Scurlock, J., Donnison, I., Glover, C., Golab, I., Greef, J., Gwyn, J., Harding, G., Hayes, C., Helios, W. & Hsu, T. W. & 36 others, Huang, L., Jezownski, S., Kim, D.-S., Kiesel, A., Kotecki, A., Krzyzak, J., Lewandowski, I., Lim, S. H., Liu, J., Loosely, M., Meyer, H., Murphy-Bokern, D., Nelson, W., Pogrzeba, M., Robinson, G., Robson, P., Rogers, C., Scalici, G., Schuele, H., Shafiei, R., Shevchuk, O., Schwarz, K.-U., Squance, M., Swaller, T., Thornton, J., Truckses, T., Botnari, V., Vizir, I., Wagner, M., Warren, R., Webster, R., Yamada, T., Youell, S., Xi, Q., Zong, J. & Flavell, R., 01 Jan 2017, In: GCB Bioenergy. 9, 1, p. 6-17

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
    File
    173 Citations (Scopus)
    320 Downloads (Pure)
  • Progress on optimizing miscanthus biomass production for the European bioeconomy: Results of the EU FP7 project OPTIMISC

    Lewandowski, I., Clifton-Brown, J., Trindade, L. M., Van De Linden, G., Schwarz, K.-U., Müller-Sämann, K., Anisimov, A., Chen, C.-L., Dolstra, O., Donnison, I., Farrar, K., Fonteyne, S., Harding, G., Hastings, A., Huxley, L., Iqbal, Y., Khokhlov, N., Kiesel, A., Lootens, P. & Meyer, H. & 11 others, Mos, M., Muylle, H., Nunn, C., Ozguven, M., Roldán-Ruiz, I., Schüle, H., Tarakanov, I., van der Weijde, T., Wagner, M., Xi, Q. & Kalinina, O., 18 Nov 2016, In: Frontiers in Plant Science. 7, N/A, 23 p., 01620.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
    File
    162 Citations (Scopus)
    277 Downloads (Pure)
  • Miscanthus for Wales

    Clifton-Brown, J. (Speaker)

    2017

    Activity: Talk or presentationOral presentation