International collaboration on wheat quality and safety

Abstract

Improving wheat quality and safety is very important for wheat breeders and related industries. While considerable research has been carried out internationally, collaborations among laboratories have been limited, and each group often uses different materials, methods and gene nomenclature. Therefore, it has been difficult to compare and reproduce their results with each other (Fig. 1). The Wheat Initiative (WI) was created to provide a framework to establish strategic research and organization priorities for wheat research at the international level. Under the WI, Expert Working Groups (EWG) for diverse wheat topics were established, bringing together experts to focus on topics relevant to the WI Strategic Research Agenda (2015). The EWG on improving wheat quality for processing, nutrition and health was established in 2015. The EWG is aimed at maintaining and improving wheat quality and safety under varying environmental conditions. This expert group focuses on wheat quality and safety in the broad sense: seed proteins, allergens, carbohydrates, nutrition including micronutrients, processing, and food safety. The EWG also work to share genetic resources and unify gene nomenclature to support these topics. Seven subgroups have been formed to cover each of the topics as it is shown in Fig. 2.