JIC's key achievements

The early work of the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) was devoted to the breeding of improved varieties of wheat.

In 1916, the variety "Yeoman" was released, which set a standard for yield and grain quality that would last for many years.

Over its 75 year history the PBI produced over 130 new varieties of wheat, barley, oats, triticale, potatoes, field beans, maize, oilseed rape, clover, sugarbeet and grasses.

In the mid 1930's the formulae for the 'John Innes Composts' were developed to provide a sterile, well-balanced growing medium for experimental plant material.

These formulae were subsequently released to the public and dominates the compost market in the UK.

A method for propagating roses was developed that is the basis of the technique still used to produce millions of roses annually.

The first registered 'semi-leafless' pea varieties arose out of research and breeding work at the JIC. The improved crop productivity and standing ability led to the use of ‘semi-leafless’ worldwide and they account for 100% of current UK dried pea varieties.

In the 1960s and 70s a 'Green Revolution' in world agricultural production took place during which world wheat yields almost doubled.

This resulted from the introduction of dwarfed, high-yielding wheat varieties and new cultivation methods estimated at increasing UK Wheat production by £75m per annum.

Research which established that arrangement of genes in chromosomes and discovered that it is highly conserved between cereal species allowed JIC to prepare genetic maps of barley, wheat, rice, maize, sorghum and millet.

These maps are effectively ‘road maps’ to desirable traits and are now part of the toolkit for research institutes across the world with an estimated value of £2.6m per annum.

Through its research on synteny in cereals, and model plant species, in this case Arabidopsis, JIC identified and isolated the dwarfing gene that was central to the green revolution.

JIC pioneered the genome sequencing of Streptomyces. These soil-inhabiting microbes are the source of most of the antibiotics used to treat infections, and they also provide us with a wide range of other drugs used in human and veterinary medicine including anti-cancer drugs and immunosuppressants.

Genome analysis is used to increase antibiotic productivity and in the search for new antibiotics for the future to combat MRSA & C. diff. The estimated value of C. diff prevention is £194m per annum.

The characterisation of a gene that controls how chromosomes pair enables a step-change in approaches to introduce new characters into cereal crops.