What the wheat genome tells us about wars

They first mapped the wheat genome; now they have reconstructed his reproductive history. Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München have teamed up with other European researchers to examine the genetic diversity of wheat varieties in the WHEALBI study. In doing so, they discovered the grain that our ancestors grew, where the wheat came from today and what the cold war has to do with it all. The results were recently published in the journal Genetic nature.

As the population increases and as climate change progresses, food resources may become scarce in the future. Given the impending scenarios, plant breeders are faced with the challenge of improving the yield of crop plants. Can existing varieties be optimized by selection? To help increase the yield of current varieties, an international team of scientists has studied the genetic diversity of different varieties of wheat and thus discovered amazing relationships with the socio-cultural history of humans.

Scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München participated in the large-scale WHEALBI study, funded by the European Union. With teams from France, Italy, Hungary, Turkey and other European countries, they analyzed the genomes of 480 varieties of wheat, including wild grasses, ancient cereals and modern types of wheat. high performance. In addition to learning about the evolution and cultivation of bread wheat today, geneticists have also established a link between wheat development and the geographic and geopolitical events of the year. history of humanity.

Modern sweet wheat originated about 10,000 years ago in the present-day Turkey region of a cross between durum wheat and wild grass (Aegilops tauschii). "The presence of crop plants is closely related to human migrations over millennia," says bioinformatician Michael Seidel, accompanied by Daniel Lang, one of the study's lead authors. Both researchers work in the plant biology and systems genome group (PGSB) at Helmholtz Zentrum München.

The PGSB team has identified three genetic pools among the bread wheat varieties used today, which are closely related to historical events: one of the high-yielding domesticated varieties in the Near East that have spread within the framework of green revolution and two separate gene pools from the West and Southwest. Central Europe. They diverged between 1966 and 1985 due to geopolitical and socio-economic separation during the Cold War. With the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, wheat lines were mixed again, as revealed by their genome.

Even the emergence and expansion of the European Union can be seen in the wheat genome of today. Wheat lines that were grown mainly in Central Europe are now used throughout Europe. "These examples demonstrate the influence of humans on the distribution and evolution of cultivated plants – beyond their actual development into cultivated plants," said Bi bioinformatician Lang from Helmholtz Zentrum München.

Knowledge of the genetic diversity of wheat is a prerequisite for the optimization of modern wheat varieties. Knowing the key characteristics of breeding is the key to making future varieties more productive and meet the demands of a growing world population and impending climate change. With corn and rice, wheat is one of the three main staple foods in the world. Wheat production despite declining soil and water resources under potentially harsh climatic conditions could become vital in the future.

As a result, researchers participating in the WHEALBI study identified previously unknown genes that affect the yield, flowering period, height, and stability of wheat plants. For the corresponding author Georg Haberer of the PGSB, it is only a beginning: "We expect a lot of additional studies that will exploit these results for selection research. . "