Watkins Landrace Wheat Collection
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The A E Watkins Landrace Wheat Collection is a collection of heritage (landrace) varieties of wheat from around the world which are adapted to their local growing environment, the collection was collected in the 1930s and contains materials from 32 countries.[1]
The genetic diversity of the wheat in the collection is greater than found in modern varieties, and so this historical collection is being explored as a source of genetic diversity for key traits, such as disease resistance.[2][3][4] The collection is now stored within the Germplasm Resources Unit at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.
The Watkins Landrace Wheat Collection is a unique resource due to the historical nature of being collected in the 1930’s before widespread globalisation of trade, and before intensive selective breeding in wheat to develop high-yielding elite varieties, which resulted in a significant loss of genetic diversity, including resilience traits.[5]
The Watkins wheat collection is now being explored for potential genetic resistance to aphids and wheat bulb fly[4] eyespot resistance[3] tan spot, Stagonospora nodorum blotch (SNB) and Fusarium head blight.[2] The collection is also being explored as a source of genetic diversity for traits like Starch Digestibility.[6]