BREEDWHEAT

BREEDWHEAT sponsored by the INRA Cereals Diversity and Ecophysiology joint research unit (UMR DGEC) in Clermont-Ferrand, aims to bolster the competitiveness of the French wheat breeding sector by addressing societal challenges to ensure sustainable production and quality. This pre-competitive project is planned to last nine years for a total investment of €34 million (including 9 million from the Investments in the Future programme). It involves 26 partners: 13 public research laboratories located at INRA centres and universities across France, 10 seed cooperatives and companies specialising in biotechnology, 2 technical institutes and the Céréales Vallée competitiveness cluster. In an unprecedented effort, BREEDWHEAT combines new high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping technologies to identify the genetic factors involved in properties of agronomic interest, such as yield, quality and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. It will enable the development of new breeding methodologies and will use untapped genetic resources to identify and combine alleles of interest for new varieties that perform better under environmentally friendly growing conditions and are adapted to climate change. The project began on 1 September 2011.

Contact information :
Coordinator : Jacques Le Gouis – jacques.legouis@inra.fr
Project manager : Emmanuelle Lagendijk – emmanuelle.lagendijk@inra.fr
www.breedwheat.fr