ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Wheat in a Hot Dry Climate

Who We Are

The Australian Research Council Research Hub for Wheat in a Hot and Dry Climate marks a new era in wheat breeding and research in Australia. It brings together wheat researchers and Australia’s three major wheat breeding companies to exploit global diversity for wheat and advanced genomic technologies for faster development of heat and drought tolerant varieties which make better use of nitrogen fertiliser.

It is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Industrial Transformation Research Hubs scheme and the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Partners include breeding companies Australian Grain Technologies, LongReach Plant Breeders and Intergrain, the Universities of Adelaide, Sydney, South Australia and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics.

Our Mission & Vision

To enhance productivity and secure high grain quality of wheat in the hot and dry Australian climate. Our goals are to:

• Develop wheat with combined heat and drought tolerance by advancing existing knowledge and technologies and transferring wheat material and knowhow to breeding programmes
• Elucidate mechanisms and molecular markers for combined heat and drought tolerance by exploring genetic diversity in wheat
• Identify mechanisms and genetic diversity for high yielding wheat with efficient nitrogen recycling and high grain protein.
• Build human capacity in molecular breeding and providing breeders access to the latest scientific developments and technologies.
• Develop and test high-throughput field phenotyping tools for Australian breeders

Key Areas of Research

The ARC Research Hub for Wheat in a Hot and Dry Climate has four key research programs:

1. Drought and heat tolerance
2. Germplasm development for genetic diversity
3. High throughput phenotyping tools
4. Linkage of yield and grain nitrogen.