[ad_1]
Project leader Curtis Pozniak compares the findings to finding a missing piece of your favorite puzzle and hopes this will transform the way wheat is grown globally.
Scientists believe genome sequencing will lead to higher wheat yields around the world.
An international team led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world.
This historic discovery will allow scientists and breeders to identify influential genes to improve yield, pest resistance, and other important crop traits much faster.
The research results, published in Nature, provide what the research team called the most comprehensive atlas of wheat genome sequences ever reported. The 10+ Genome collaboration involved more than 95 scientists from universities and institutes in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Israel, Australia and the United States.
“It’s like finding the missing pieces for your favorite puzzle you’ve been working on for decades,” said project leader Curtis Pozniak, a wheat farmer and director of the USask Crop Development Center (CDC). “With many complete genetic assemblies available, we can now help solve the huge puzzle that is the huge pan-genome of wheat and usher in a new era of wheat discovery and reproduction.”
Scientific groups in the global wheat community are expected to use the new resource to identify genes linked to required traits, such as pest and disease resistance, which will accelerate the efficiency of reproduction.
“This resource allows us to control farming more precisely to increase the rate of grain improvement for the benefit of farmers and consumers and to meet future food demands,” added Pozniak.
As one of the most cultivated cereal crops in the world, wheat plays an important role in global food security, providing approximately 20% of human caloric intake globally. The university says wheat production is estimated to increase by more than 50% by 2050 to meet growing global demand – knowing which ‘best performing’ wheat genome could be crucial to achieving this.
The researchers explain that they were able to trace the unique DNA signatures of the genetic material incorporated in modern cultivars from many of the grain’s untamed relatives from ranchers over the past century.1
“These relatives of wheat have been used by farmers to improve the disease resistance and stress resistance of wheat,” Pozniak said. “One of these relatives contributed a DNA segment to modern wheat that contains disease-resistant genes and provides protection against a number of fungal diseases. Our collaborators at Kansas State University and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico have shown that this segment can improve yields by up to 10%. Since reproduction is a process of continuous improvement, we can continue to cross plants to select this precious trait. “
The Pozniak team, in collaboration with scientists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the National Research Council of Canada, also used genome sequences to isolate an insect-resistant gene (Sm1). This gene allows wheat plants to resist the orange wheat flower fly, a pest that can cause more than $ 60 million in annual losses to producers in western Canada.1
“Understanding a causal gene such as this is a game changer for reproduction because parasite resistance can be selected more efficiently using a simple DNA test than manual field tests,” concluded Pozniak.
References
- www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2961-x
Source link
