How we grew the plants

Further details


Initially the pots are placed on a bench to be close to the light source. The temperature and lights are programmed to mimic a natural spring.
Seven days after potting up the young plants have 3 to 4 leaves. Up until this stage the apical dome (which is below soil level) has produced only leaf primordia. Now it will start to change from the vegetative state to the floral state. (see the section on the Development of the Apex)
There is variation in the growth and development of the individual grains along the ear. Those at the top and the bottom of the spike are less advanced than those in the middle of the spike. For our cDNA extractions and our microscopic analysis we used only the grains from the first and second florets from the central five spikelets.
At harvest ripe the ears start to bend over. The plants have been in the Controlled Environment room for a total of 20 weeks.
Three weeks later the plants have 4/5 emerged leaves and 3 primary tillers. The main stem has started to grow inside the unfolded leaves, it is 2cm long. This raises the apex from below soil level to just above it. The apex of the main stem has developed rapidly and now has glume and lemma primordia. The pots remain on the raised bench for a further 20 days.
The pots are now moved to low benching. Too close to the artificial light and the ears get toasted! The stem is rising rapidly through the leaf sheaths. The ear is also developing very quickly (go to the section on Development of the apex for the pictures). The flag leaf emerges after 56 days in the growth rooms.
After 6 weeks in the cold the modules are transferred to a cool green house. The emerged seedlings grow very rapidly in the warmer temperature and natural light. When two leaves have emerged they are potted on into 5 litre pots: 5 seedlings per pot and placed in the Controlled Environment room.
Mercia seed was sown into module trays of compost and placed in the cold store at 4 degrees Celsius for 6 weeks. During this time in the cold the seed becomes fully imbibed and dormancy is broken. The seeds germinate and the coleoptile emerges in the cold room. This simulates the autumn planting of field grown winter wheat.
These are the guys who made it all happen by growing the plants for us. From the left, Richard Parkinson (Controlled Environments), Godfrey Hardbard (Glasshouses and Plunge Beds), Bob Hughes (generally brilliant!)
The plants start to flower and we tag the mainstem ears. Each mainstem ear is tagged and the day on which it flowered is recorded. This means that, later, when we come to take a sample, we know how many days have passed since fertilization.
The temperature, humidity, day length and light intensity are increased and then decreased on a regular schedule mimicking as closely as possible the temperatures and light intensities of summer.