Indo-UK Centre for the improvement of Nitrogen use Efficiency in Wheat (INEW)

小麦是英国种植的最重要的主食作物，也是印度种植的两种主要作物之一。氮肥是产量的关键决定因素，也是这两个国家小麦生产的主要成本，过量施用会导致地下水污染和温室气体排放增加。英国和印度的育种者和农民一直在努力提高氮肥的使用效率，通过遗传改良提高作物的吸收和利用效率，以及田间施肥的精确性。然而，需要进一步改进，以应对全球人口不断增加而气候不确定性增加的挑战。产量和质量属性都取决于氮素投入，需要纳入经济和可持续的解决方案。因此，我们将汇集英国和印度的主要小麦研究人员，制定小麦改良计划，以确定小麦氮素利用效率的遗传控制。这些研究人员来自英国的五所大学和研究所，以及新德里、哈里亚纳邦和印度主要小麦产区旁遮普的六所大学和研究所。研究将集中在比较不同小麦品系和群体的氮利用效率。这些品系将在这两个国家的田间试验中种植，并使用一系列生物化学和分子遗传方法进行详细研究。这将导致全球小麦育种者可以利用的基因和分子标记的识别，以及提高氮肥施用精度的新策略，这些策略将通过两国完善的机制提供给农民。此外，由于类似的机制预计将确定其他植物物种的氮素利用效率，因此其结果应更广泛地适用于其他作物和国家。除了支持英国和印度的密切综合研究计划外，该中心还将提供共享设施、技术、遗传材料和数据集的遗产，这将促进长期的双边合作，并为两国的早期职业科学家和学生提供作物遗传学和基因组学方面的培训和交流。

Wheat is the most important staple crop grown in the UK, and one of the two major crops grown in India. Nitrogen fertiliser is a key determinant of yield and the major cost of wheat production in both countries and excessive application can result in pollution of groundwater and increased production of greenhouse gases. Breeders and farmers in the UK and India have worked hard to improve the efficiency of use of applied nitrogen, by improving the uptake and utilization efficiency within the crop through genetic improvement, together with the precision of fertilizer application in the field. However, further improvements are required to face the challenges of increasing crop production for an expanding global population with increasing uncertainty of climate. Both yield and quality attributes are dependent upon nitrogen inputs and need to be incorporated into economic and sustainable solutions. We will therefore bring together the major UK and Indian wheat researchers with programmes on wheat improvement to determine the genetic control of nitrogen use efficiency in wheat. These comprise scientists from five Universities and Institutes in the UK and from six in New Delhi, Haryana and the Punjab, which is the major wheat-producing area of India.The studies will focus on comparisons of wheat lines and populations which differ in their nitrogen use efficiency. These lines will be grown in field experiments in both countries and studied in detail using a range of biochemical and molecular genetic approaches. This will lead to the identification of genes and molecular markers that can be exploited by wheat breeders globally, and to new strategies for improving the precision of nitrogen application which will delivered to farmers via well-established mechanisms in both countries. Furthermore, since similar mechanisms are expected to determine nitrogen use efficiency in other plant species the results should be of wider applicability to other crops and countries.In addition to supporting a closely integrated research programme in the UK and India, the Centre will also provide a legacy of shared facilities, technologies, genetic material and datasets that will facilitate longer term bilateral collaborations, and provide training in crop genetics and genomics and exchanges for early career scientists and students in both countries.