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Revolutionising wheat: Developing cultivars that maintain their quality in heat and drought

28 April 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

UFS PhD student and food scientist Schae-Lee Olckers’ research could contribute to a stable supply of good quality wheat and bread, even in the face of climate change.

Follow your passion in order to find your purpose. This is the mantra of food scientist and University of the Free State (UFS) PhD student Schae-Lee Olckers, whose research is set to improve wheat quality by identifying which types of wheat are better able to tolerate stress, and which proteins are most important for producing high-quality bread.

“By grasping this, it is possible to ensure that we continue to have a stable supply of good quality wheat and bread, even in the face of climate change,” says Olckers, who believes wheat is one of the most important food grains in the human diet, and one of the most important staple cereal crops in the world.

Her PhD study, ‘The influence of abiotic stress on gluten protein and baking quality in bread wheat’, under the supervision of Dr Angie van Biljon and Prof Maryke Labuschagne in the Department of Plant Sciences, and Prof Garry Osthoff in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, is investigating how different levels of heat and drought stress – mostly due to climate change – affect the gluten protein composition of high-yield bread wheat.

Olckers is a food scientist at StartWell Foods (Pty) Ltd, a non-profit organisation that produces high-quality extrusion products for feeding schemes around the country. The products help to eliminate stunted growth among children.

Improving wheat breeding programmes

This research could help us find ways to adapt to climate change and continue to produce high-quality wheat and bread for people around the world. – Schae-Lee Olckers

Her research focuses on examining different types of wheat and investigating how proteins are affected by stressors like heat and drought, to understand how these stressors impact the quality of bread. She uses new proteomic methods to look at the different proteins in the wheat flour, to gain a better appreciation of how gluten proteins react to stress.

In this study Olckers is able to see how the proteins change in the various wheat cultivars, helping us to understand how the different types of wheat perform in baking, and how the proteins affect the final product.

She collaborates with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, that releases new wheat cultivars for developing countries. Their aim is to develop wheat cultivars that maintain their quality in different environments. To investigate the performance and characteristics of the seeds, both in the field and in the laboratory, CIMMYT did the field trials, quality assessment, and supplied the seeds for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and proteomics analysis.

Finding ways to adapt to climate change

She believes that understanding how these stressors impact the production of bread-baking quality in wheat will help scientists gain important insights into how climate change affects our food supply.

“Taking into consideration the current and projected intensifying heat and water deficit stresses, it is crucial to improve the understanding of these phenomena in order to implement new breeding strategies for sustainable wheat quality. This research could help us find ways to adapt to climate change and continue to produce high-quality wheat and bread for people around the world,” Olckers says.

News Archive

Farewell to the Class of 2015

2016-12-07

Description:Class of 2015 Tags: Class of 2015 longdesc=

Some of the students from the Class of 2015

The First Year Leadership for Change programme (F1 L4C) hosted its final graduation ceremony for the class of 2015.

Launched in 2010, the programme gives first-year students international exposure to top universities across the world, providing invaluable opportunities to explore the concepts of transformational leadership, global citizenship and social cohesion.

The 32 students and six staff mentors visited various universities which included, New York University, Rutgers University, Edmonds Community College and Washington University - all in the US, Mahasarakham University in Thailand and Vrije University in the Netherlands.

Making a change through critical thinking

Pura Mgolombane, Dean of Student Affairs at the University of the Free State (UFS), challenged the students to think about making a change and to critically think about themselves and how they see the world.

The graduation function, which took place on 16 November 2016, saw the class of 2015 come together to celebrate their accomplishments over the year and allowed the class representative, Tammy Fray, to reflect on all of the valuable lessons learnt.

Special announcement to end the evening

Throughout the evening, representatives from previous years testified to the impact the programme had on their personal development, leadership pathways and their learning communities. The audience was charmed with a song by Stefan Lotter, current chair of the F1 Fellowship Association, and the Delicate Artistry Band.

The evening ended with a special word by Prof Nicky Morgan, acting Rector of the UFS, who convinced by alumni’s testimonies, acknowledged what the exceptional programme had delivered over the past six years. Although it was at the end of its lifetime, he said that in review, ideas emerging from the programme should be explored to give birth to something new. Watch this space!

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