Rapid ID system separates wheat from the chaff

CSIRO Plant Industry has developed a simple high-throughput testing system that accurately identifies wheat and barley varieties.

Variety identification of wheat and barley provides assurance of quality for products that require different grain characteristics, such as bread, noodles and beer.

The process is vital in maintaining Australia's grain export markets where performance standards must be upheld.

Premium markets such as Japan often demand that malting quality barley shipments be essentially pure with respect to the specified variety.

Variety testing also helps ensure end-point royalties are paid on improved new varieties, giving breeders the resources to keep producing better crop varieties.

The CSIRO ID system uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to test leaf or grain samples using a panel of molecular markers.

Each marker gives a 'yes' or 'no' result. The pattern of results generates an individual 'bar code' for each variety.

By using specific, targeted markers, varieties that are extremely similar may be distinguished.

Designed to be practical, the system can be mostly automated - test results can be read by machine and software has been developed to interpret the data.

This enables this system to efficiently run the high volume of tests required.

CSIRO's wheat DNA variety testing system has been developed through Graingene and licensed by Agrifood Technology.

The barley variety identification system was developed in collaboration with ABB Grain Ltd.