Transforming wheat breeding with doubled haploid technology

At the University of Sydney's Plant Breeding Institute (PBI), Dr Nizam U Ahmed made a groundbreaking contribution by establishing the doubled haploid (DH) wheat breeding technique in 2002. This innovation has reduced the time needed to develop new wheat varieties from 10–12 years to just 6 years, offering a rapid and efficient pathway for breeding programs.

Since its establishment, the DH breeding service provided by Dr Ahmed and the PBI team has supported many breeding programs across Australia.

Starting in 2004, multinational companies like Longreach Plant Breeders (Syngenta & Pacific Seeds) adopted the DH technology, resulting in the release of ‘Spitfire,’ the first DH wheat cultivar released in Australia, in 2010.

By 2024, the PBI DH group had successfully produced and supplied thousands of DH plants to commercial companies, leading to the release of 25 DH cultivars for diverse agro-climatic regions of Australia.

The success of the DH technique has drawn significant international attention.

Dr Ahmed has been invited to present his methodology and provide training to wheat researchers at universities and institutes worldwide. These efforts have enhanced the reputation of the PBI and Australian agricultural research on a global scale.

The DH technique was recently featured as a chapter titled "A Rapid Breeding Technology of Wheat" in a book published by Springer Nature.