Source: CropBiotech Update

CIMMYT turns wheat genome back

Today’s bread wheat is the product of a 30,000 year old series of hybridization events. First, wild wheat mated with a species of goat grass, and their offspring – a primitive wheat called emmer – crossed with another wild goat grass 21,000 years later to produce the modern day Triticum aestivum. This wheat has been so popular, it, and its descendants have been the only kinds of wheat planted for centuries.

This wide planting of the crop has led to low genetic diversity in wheat. To counter this, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico have turned back the clock to bring wheat to its original form.

CIMMYT researchers collected wild goat grass from the Middle East, crossed it with modern emmer, and created different varieties of bread wheat all over again. The new wheats, however, are still not suitable for farming, but the experiments have hitherto been promising: one strain produces 20-40% more grain under dry conditions, as compared with conventional varieties.

Read Tom Simonite's complete article, "Ancient genetic tricks shape up wheat - Turning back the evolutionary clock offers better crops for dry regions" on nature.com at http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060102/full/060102-2.html.