17. The parent organism is bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) which is exotic to Australia and is grown as an agricultural crop in most states of Australia. Bread wheat has been grown in Australia for over 200 years and is a significant food crop. Further detailed information about the parent organism is contained in a reference document, The Biology of Triticum aestivum L. em Thell. (Bread Wheat), which was produced in order to inform the risk assessment process for licence applications involving GM wheat plants. This document is available at Documents relating to the Risk Assessment process.
18. The GM wheat lines in the proposed release were derived from the wheat cultivars Bobwhite 26 and NB1. The Bobwhite cultivar is not favoured as a commercial bread wheat as it is considered to be of lower quality than most commercial cultivars (Bhalla et al. 2006), but is commonly used in genetic modification work because it is relatively easy to transform and has previously been used in conventional (non-GM) wheat breeding programs. The cultivar NB1 is a breeding line from the United Kingdom, which is not commercially cultivated in Australia.