A new method of breeding pure lines of plants has been developed.
Plant breeding projects are often used for increasing food production levels, but creating “pure” lines – usually through shuttle breeding – has historically been a time-consuming activity and usually only achieves two to three generations a year.
However, the new breeding techniques combined with modified water, light and temperature, humidity and potting-mix are now allowing for up to eight generations of wheat and nine generations of barley to be grown every year.
These findings have wide-reaching implications for plant breeding and food production.
Read more at The University of Western Australia