WASHINGTON –
The genetic blueprint of wheat has been deciphered for the first time, a discovery that researchers said could lead to improved plant breeding and protection against disease and drought.
Bread wheat is a leading staple for 30 percent of the global population, but unlocking its genetic secrets has been particularly difficult because its genome is five times the size of a human’s.
The latest research means that the full sequencing of the wheat genome is now about three years away.
Researchers focused on a cultivated wheat variety known as Chinese Spring (Triticum aestivum L.).
They have produced a draft sequence of its genome, including the location of more than 124,000 genes, many of which relate to grain quality, pest resistance, or stress tolerance.
A team of French researchers has also mapped a complete bread wheat chromosome, known as 3B, leaving 20 more chromosomes to decipher.
“We have reached a great milestone in our roadmap,” said Catherine Feuillet, co-chair of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC).
“We know now the way forward to obtain a reference sequence for the 20 remaining chromosomes and we hopefully will be able to find the resources to achieve this in the next three years.”
Genetically modified maize, rice and soybeans are grown commercially around the world, but not wheat, largely due to consumer resistance and the prospect of export bans from countries that do not want modified wheat.
Growers say the need for better strategies is crucial, because just as the world population is projected to reach nine billion by 2050, wheat production is falling due to a warming planet.
Wheat production fell by 5.5 percent from 2000 to 2008, mainly due to hot, dry weather, said the study in the journal Science by researchers at the (IWGSC).
Meanwhile, growers need to boost production by 70 percent in the coming decades in order to meet the planet’s food needs.
“A rapid paradigm shift in science-based advances in wheat genetics and breeding, comparable to the first green revolution of the 1960s, will be essential to meet these challenges,” said the study.
Wheat is the world’s third biggest crop after maize and rice.
Growers hope the new data will help produce a new generation of wheat varieties that produce more grain and are better able to resist pests and disease.
“Major diseases of wheat exist around the globe,” said Burleson Smith, director of research at the National Association of Wheat Growers, in an email to a foreign news agency.
“With information about the genome, researchers will be able to identify why some varieties and wild relatives are more tolerant of these pests, and pass these genes to more desirable commercial varieties in less time.”
