About the project

This project is led by Shiori Koga, Nofima/Until 2022 - Anne Kjersti Uhlen, NMBU

• The project aims to improve the quality of Norwegian wheat in forthcoming years under changing climatic conditions, to secure high and stable proportion used for milling. The project focus on two important bottlenecks f: 1) The lower-than-optimal protein content and 2) unpredictable variations in gluten quality.
• To reach the project goal, the following critical R&D questions will be addressed:
  Do infections by microorganisms and/or precipitation during grain maturation affect assembly or degradation of gluten proteins? Can we develop a screening method for gluten degradation suitable for breeders samples? How do fungal proteases in flour affect the baking process? Can optical spectral sensing be used to improve late-season fertilization to achieve optimal protein content while maintaining high yield? Can high-protein genes be identified in Norwegian wheat to increase utilization of available nitrogen content while maintaining high yield? Is there a genetic basis for biotic and abiotic factors affect gluten protein assembly and degradation?

• Backgrounds

  This project aims to improve the quality of Norwegian wheat for milling to secure high and stable production in forthcoming years under more challenging climatic conditions. This is important to increase the domestic food production in Norway, and to strengthen competitiveness in the agricultural sector and the cereal food industry. In the last decade, however, the usage of Norwegian wheat has been lower due to quality variations cause by more challenging weather.

• Objectives

  Develop knowledge to produce wheat for human consumption with good and stable bread-making quality under challenging climate, and thus secure high self-sufficiency.

  1. Identify how infection by fungi (Microdochium spp.) and weather conditions affect assembly and degradation of gluten proteins. Develop a screening method suitable for breeding to detect gluten protein degradation.
  2. Develop agronomic strategies, based on optical spectral sensing, for late-season fertilization to achieve optimal grain protein content at high yield levels.
  3. Identify high-protein genes that can be used in Norwegian wheat breeding to increase utilisation of available nitrogen content while maintaining optimum yield, and the genetic basis for biotic and abiotic factors of assembly and degradation of gluten proteins.
  4. Yearly assess quality of the new harvest of Norwegian wheat, and increase the understanding of how fungal proteases may affect baking, particularly under long fermentation processes.

Participants at NMBU

External participants

Nofima
NMBU
Nibio
Graminor AS
Fellekjøpet Agri SA
Strand Unikorn AS
Norgesmøllene AS
Lantmannen Cerealia AS
Orkla Foods Norge AS
Bakehuset AS
Yara AS
Rothamsted Research Crop Performance Improvement Division, UK
University of Minnesota, USA