Dr Scott Boden

The Boden group investigates genes and molecular processes that control inflorescence architecture and flowering time in wheat, barley and oats. The goal of our research is to understand the fundamental mechanisms that regulate key yield components of reproductive development in cereals, which can then be applied in breeding programs to improve grain production and quality.

Our research includes investigation of genes that determine the number and arrangement of spikelets that form on an inflorescence, which are specialised reproductive branches that form grain-producing florets. To investigate this trait, we study the development of ‘paired spikelets’, which are supernumerary spikelets characterised by the formation of two spikelets rather than the typical single spikelet. Research investigating this trait has shown that transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of the photoperiod-dependent flowering pathway regulates spikelet architecture, with a weak-flowering signal during early developmental stages leading to the production of additional spikelets.

Our research includes analysis of the developmental regulation of floral architecture, particularly the control of stigma and carpel development in wheat and how this can be enhanced to benefit hybrid seed production.

We are also interested in the seasonal regulation of flowering-time, and how a plant interacts with its environment to determine when and how many fertile florets form. We are combining laboratory and field-based experiments to understand how genes respond to the seasonal progression of daylength and temperature to influence flowering-time. This work is being extended into oats to understand the major genetic regulators of phenology-related traits in this important cereal.

Scott is based at the Waite Research Institute at the University of Adelaide, and works with colleagues at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, where he was previously a Group Leader and Royal Society Research Fellow. Scott’s collaborations with colleagues at JIC and the Designing Future Wheat research program in the UK aim to generate a wheat ideotype with improved yield potential that will be resilient to changes in the climate. Scott also collaborates with the international wheat research community through his aligned project with the International Wheat Yield Partnership, and he interacts with commercial breeding programs such as KWS and AGT.