[ad_1]
Scientists were surprised by the genome sequencing of 16 wheat species.
One of the most cultivated and oldest crops in the world, wheat is a genetically strange plant with 10 times more fertility genes than other cereal crops.
While putting the building blocks of wheat on paper during the historical study, the scientists found that the fertility genes in wheat were much more varied than expected.
This discovery opens up hope that it will be easier than previously thought to grow wheat varieties that are less likely to self-pollinate.
Wheat’s love of self-pollination has been a major obstacle on the way to growing more abundant and difficult varieties of wheat, known as hybrids.
University of Western Australia scientists Ian Small and Joanna Melonic contributed to the international study conducted by the University of Saskatchewan in Canada that specifically works on genes that control pollen fertility.
Professor Small said the team did not expect to find what they did in the family of genes known as Reproduction Genes (Rfl).
“It was an incredible difference,” he said.
“Even among closely related wheat varieties.”
The sixteen sequences were from wheat programs around the world.
Dr Melonik said the analysis was an important step in accelerating several breeding programs around the world in an effort to improve grain production.
He said: “Wheat is a staple food and any improvements we can make to increase its productivity and quality will be important as the world’s population is growing rapidly and food security becomes a growing problem.”
Mapping the wheat genome has been a long and difficult task for scientists, but a necessary one, as global demand for wheat is estimated to increase by 50% by 2050.
Successful sequencing will allow for the newest and best hybrid grain crossing, said Curtis Pozniak, senior researcher at the University of Saskatchewan.
studying, Multiple wheat genomes reveal global variations in modern farming (Title of the work), to be published in the journal nature.
Source link
