NASA inspired ‘speed breeding’ technique boosts wheat production by upto 3 times
10NASA-inspired ‘speed breeding’ technique boosts wheat production by upto 3 times.
Inspired by NASA’s experiments to grow wheat in space, Australian scientists have developed the
world’s first ‘speed breeding’ technique that can boost the production of the crop by up to three times. The NASA experiments involved using continuous light on wheat which triggered early reproduction in the plants.
“We thought we could use the NASA idea to grow plants quickly back on Earth, and in turn, accelerate the genetic gain in our plant breeding programmes,” said Lee Hickey, Senior Research Fellow at University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia.
“By using speed breeding techniques in specially modified glasshouses we can grow six generations of wheat, chickpea and barley plants, and four generations of canola plants in a single year – as opposed to two or three generations in a regular glasshouse, or a single generation in the field,” Hickey said.
“Our experiments showed that the quality and yiel