Genetic Secrets Hidden in Museum Archives May Hold Key to Solving Climate Change Woes

With an estimated 60 percent more food needed to be produced by 2050 to sustain the growing world population, according to an estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), scientists have embarked upon a search for varieties of crops that are hardy and can adapt to climate change.

As wheat – one of the most critically important crops in the world – increasingly faces challenges from climate change, pests, and disease, a team of scientists has been sifting through ancient museum archives to find a solution.

Wheat that can be particularly resistant to a plethora of extreme weather conditions, such as drought and rising global temperatures, could boost annual yields, scientists believe. Furthermore, the crop could possibly be grown successfully even in areas where the environment has, to date, made this impossible.

London’s Natural History Museum's archives boast around 12,000 specimens of wheat, with scientists resorting to sequencing the genomes of some of the tougher varieties. According to the experts who took part in the effort to digitize the archive, the ancient collection dates back to the 1700s, including a specimen picked up during Captain James Cook's original voyage to Australia. Genomes from wild wheat samples originating in hot, dry parts of the world could help breed sturdier varieties.

Wheat

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Thus, scientists working at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, in collaboration with an international team of like-minded researchers, have enjoyed success in cross-breeding centuries-old varieties of wheat with modern ones. This has allowed them to come up with wheat varieties that may potentially demonstrate “disease resistance, stress resistance, increased yield, increased fertilizer-use efficiency,” according to media reports. More nutritious wheat varieties are also being singled out.

Researchers recently discovered a height-reducing gene – Rht13 – allowing wheat seeds to be planted deeper in the soil. This would grant the emerging seedlings access to more moisture.

“We have found a new mechanism that can make reduced-height wheat varieties without some of the disadvantages associated with the conventional semi-dwarfing genes. The discovery of the gene, its effects and exact location on the wheat genome, means that we can give breeders a perfect genetic marker to allow them to breed more climate-resilient wheat”, said John Innes Centre group leader Dr. Philippa Borrill. The details of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). What makes the newly-discovered dwarf gene special is that it starts to act in tissues higher up in the wheat stem only after the seedling has fully emerged.

The scientists identified the so-called “semi-dwarfing gene” in collaboration with the group of senior researcher Wolfgang Spielmeyer at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.

“In dry environments, the alternative reduced height gene will allow farmers to sow seeds at depth – and not have to gamble on the seedlings emerging… and the upregulation of a pathogen related dwarfing gene may help to enhance resistance response to certain pathogens,” Dr. Borrill told media.