The third way - Breeding for nutritional quality

Today, cereal breeding is largely focused on yield and disease resistance but with very little emphasis on nutritional quality. Cereals are an excellent source of starch and fibre but have a number of nutritional shortcomings when used as feed or food. The phosphate reserves are not bioavailable, the amino acid composition is far from optimal and the mineral content is low. As a consequence large-scale supplementation with inorganic phosphate, soybean protein, amino acids and minerals is required to fulfil the nutritional demands of livestock. Mineral deficiencies are in particular prominent among the poor in developing countries that almost exclusively live on cereals and other starch crops. Fortification and supplementation with minerals are for these people currently not realistic options for reasons of economy and lack of infrastructure.

In this presentation I shall summarize our efforts in the research group “Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology” at Research Centre Flakkebjerg to improve the nutritional quality of barley and wheat with respect to phosphate, amino acids and minerals, improvements that at the same time reduce the excretion of nutrients. Furthermore, I will describe our implementation of gene expression profiling for understanding the regulation of the metabolic pathways in the cereal grain and our attempts to develop new transformation techniques for cereals. In conclusion we consider it realistic to modify the cereal grain with respect to a number of nutritional parameters. Stacking of these traits will allow for nutritional, economic and environmental benefits that may make such cultivars competitive.

Tid: 13. marts 2007, kl. 14.

Sted: Det Biovidenskabelige Fakultet (Tidl. Landbohøjskolen), Auditorium 3-14, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg C