A Community Resource for Wheat and Rice Transformation

大米和小麦是世界上最重要的两种作物。2017年，全球小麦和水稻产量预计将分别达到7.49亿吨和5.03亿吨。尽管如此，全球粮食安全分析人士估计，到2050年，粮食产量需要翻一番，才能养活95亿人。随着我们未来的气候变化，我们将需要更好地适应干旱和减少化肥投入，并对新的病虫害和疾病具有抵抗力的小麦和水稻品种，以维持负担得起、有营养和安全的可持续粮食供应。现在必须开始培育这些适应气候的新品种，这是基于利用所有可用的工具来研究基因功能和调控的基因研究。许多技术将有助于解决这些目标，而转基因(GM)将不可避免地做出贡献。这要么是直接的，随着具有新性状的转基因小麦品种的开发和引入，要么是间接作为更好地了解性状基因如何发挥作用的研究工具。到目前为止，转基因作物在很大程度上局限于对除草剂或昆虫具有抗性的性状，但现在正在研究赋予抗旱、抗病、增产或健康益处的新一代性状，这些性状将在实现粮食安全和未来增产方面发挥重要作用。其中一些基因来自其他作物物种，如果没有转基因，就不可能在谷物中进行研究。小麦和水稻转化中的社区资源将使英国学术研究人员更容易、更具成本效益地获得我们的高通量小麦和水稻转化系统。它将鼓励从事其他物种工作的植物科学家评估他们在这些重要作物中的基因，并为进一步研究提供有价值的材料。此外，这笔资金还将使这项技术向前发展，增加可用于基因表达的遗传工具，以及微调或取消小麦中目标基因表达的机会。

Rice and wheat are two of the world's most important crops. In 2017, global wheat and rice production is forecast to reach 749 and 503 million tonnes respectively. Despite this, global food security analysts estimate that food production needs to double to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. As our climate changes in the future we will need wheat and rice varieties which are better adapted to drought and reduced fertilizer inputs, and are resistant to new pests and diseases to maintain a sustainable supply of affordable, nutritious and safe food. Breeding these new climate-adapted varieties has to start now, based on genetic research which uses all the available tools to study gene function and regulation. Many technologies will contribute to tackling these targets and it is inevitable that genetic modification (GM) will make a contribution. This will either be directly, with the development and introduction of GM wheat varieties with new traits, or indirectly, as a research tool to better understand how trait genes function.GM crops have to date have largely been confined to traits giving resistance to herbicides or insects, but a new generation of traits which confer drought tolerance, disease resistance, yield improvements or health benefits are now being examined which will have an important role to play in achieving food security and future increases in production. Some of these genes come from other crop species and would be impossible to study in cereals without GM.The Community Resource in Wheat and Rice Transformation will make it easier and more cost effective for UK academic researchers to access our high throughput wheat and rice transformation systems. It will encourage plant scientists working in other species to evaluate their genes in these important crops, and provide valuable materials for further research. In addition, the funding will also allow the technology to advance, increasing both the genetic tools available for gene expression and the opportunities to fine tune or abolish the expression of targeted genes in wheat.