Neo Barley: Propelling Australia's barley production to new heights
Project name
DPIRD Cereal Doubled Haploid Program
Funding
DPIRD
Game-changing barley variety developed through innovative doubled haploid program
InterGrain launched a new barley variety on June 8, 2023, touted as 'the one' to take Australian barley production to the next level.
The high-performance variety - the Greek word for new - is set to increase yields by 10 per cent, generating a potential $110 million per annum boost to the value of the national barley industry.
The development of Neo involved using DPIRD’s doubled haploid program which provided a short cut to the development of fixed lines following the crossing or hybridisation of Neo’s parents.
InterGrain selected the parents, made the cross and provided the F1, or hybrid seed, to DPIRD in 2018.
Plants were then generated using a plant tissue culture technique called anther culture, where immature pollen cells (haploid microspores) are diverted from their normal developmental pathway to one of embryogenesis and haploid plant development.
Following a chromosome-doubling step, the resulting doubled haploid plants are fully fertile and 100% homozygous (fixed or true-breeding) at all loci.
Doubled haploid lines were delivered to InterGrain who then evaluated the lines over sites and seasons, which led to the ultimate selection and release of Neo.
The DPIRD staff responsible for this integral work include Doubled Haploid Project Leader and Research Scientist, Sue Broughton, Research Scientist Marieclaire Castello, and Technical Officers Li Liu and Julie Killen.
Ms Broughton, a national expert in doubled haploid technology, has refined the method for barley and wheat.
“The essential step of generating fixed (true-breeding) lines following hybridisation or ‘crossing’ parental varieties is reduced from four or five years, using conventional breeding methods, to less than 12 months using plant tissue culture techniques,” she said.
“For plant breeders who can make rapid advances working with fixed lines, the technique can take years off the time to deliver a new variety, as is the case with Neo.”
According to Ms Broughton, doubled haploids are extremely useful in genetic studies, gene mapping and the development of molecular markers, and are often preferred over conventional inbred lines due to their 100% homozygosity.
Doubled haploid populations of wheat and barley are an important tool for researchers at DPIRD and other research institutions.
The DPIRD doubled haploid program operates a fee-for-service unit and delivers large numbers of wheat and barley doubled haploid lines to plant breeding companies and researchers around Australia.
The program has also produced canola doubled haploid lines for DPIRD researchers and is currently working on triticale doubled haploid production for DPIRD.
The DPIRD program is currently the only program producing barley doubled haploids, and one of only two wheat doubled haploid programs, in Australia.
Accelerating crop development: Neo's rapid release
The speed of release of Neo from cross to commercial seed in five years was facilitated by DPIRD’s doubled haploid program.
As a comparison, without the doubled haploid program, InterGrain’s market-leading Maximus variety took eight years from cross to release.
Ms Broughton said the speed of breeding and potential impact of this variety demonstrates how modern breeding technologies can result in positive outcomes for both grower productivity and the economic growth of the agricultural sector.
In 2021, 75 per cent of the barley area in WA was sown to InterGrain varieties led by the variety Spartacus which was planted on 52 per cent of land sown to barley.
Neo is InterGrain’s 12th barley variety and will complement InterGrain’s market-leading portfolio of barley varieties.
Anticipated adoption to drive $45 million annual boost in WA
Neo has the potential to further enhance Australia’s reputation as a global leader in the provision of malting-quality barley.
Neo has been submitted to Grain Australia’s malting barley accreditation program, with March 2025 being the earliest possible date for a decision on Neo’s malting status.
The variety is well suited to medium to high rainfall environments boasting strong pest and disease resistance and superior grain quality characteristics.
If the anticipated scale of adoption of Neo is achieved, it will boost the value of the WA barley industry by more than $45 million annually ($110 million nationally).
This estimate is based on 10 per cent yield improvement for the forecast maximum market-share adoption of Neo, 3.6 million tonnes WA annual barley production, 9.7 million tonnes national annual barley production, at a price of $325 per tonne (price value recommended by AEGIC).
Contact
Sue Broughton
DPIRD research scientist
P: +61 (0)8 9368 3737
E: sue.broughton@dpird.wa.gov.au