James Brett

In the UK, around 15% of people meet the daily recommended fibre intake and wheat products, such as bread, contribute largely towards this goal.

The main dietary fibres in wheat are arbinoxylans (AX). This is a quantitative trait- controlled by multiple genetic components and influenced partly by the environment.

James’ work is looking to find new genes which control AX content in the Watkins collection of wheat landraces. This collection has been shown to contain high fibre lines and genetic diversity not seen in modern bread wheats, allowing for the introduction of high fibre traits into modern elite wheat lines and thus also increasing genetic diversity among these.

This work is based at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, in conjunction with the John Innes Centre and funded by Flander’s Food in Belgium, as part of a larger project called ”.