Thursday, August 16, 2018

Canadians help crack wheat genome

Canadian researchers have cracked the genome for Chinese wheat, a feat  once considered near impossible.

The team was led by the University of Saskatchewan and included the University of Guelph, the University of Regina, the National Research Council and the federal agriculture department’s research branch.

For the past 13 years, more than 200 scientists from 73 research institutions in 20 countries have been endeavouring, through the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), to complete the genome sequence for bread wheat and make publicly available the new genomic assembly for breeders seeking to develop improved varieties.  

“With funding from a range of partners and cutting-edge sequencing technology from our industrial partner NRGene, our research team at the University of Saskatchewan played a key role in the international consortium’s success, a discovery that has the potential for disruptive innovation in wheat improvement,” said Curtis Pozniak, researcher and wheat breeder at the Crop Development Centre in the university’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources.

“Essentially we have completed the wheat genome jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces put together in their correct positions and order, providing an enormous advantage for breeders when searching for genes that control important traits in the crop,” said Pozniak. “This breakthrough research will help produce better wheat varieties over the long term.”  

Pozniak leads Canada’s contribution to the IWGSC-led wheat genome initiative through the Canadian Triticum Applied Genomics (CTAG2) project.

“The new genome assembly provides a chromosome-by-chromosome representation rather than the fractured picture available previously and will elevate wheat research and breeding to a level equal to, or even better than, other major crops,” said Andrew Sharpe, director of Genomics and Bioinformatics at the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) and co-lead for the CTAG2 project.  

AAFC wheat breeder Richard Cuthbert said, “breeders will now have the information they need to identify economically important traits more rapidly, which will better enable development of wheat varieties with increases in yield, enhanced grain quality, improvements in disease resistance and more resilient to environmental stresses. 

“The result will be more nutritious grain that can be grown more effectively and efficiently in harsher climates.” 

In Canada, wheat accounts for more than $4.5 billion in annual sales and, when value-added processing is factored in, contributes more than $11 billion each year to the Canadian economy.

With the world’s population expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, Maurice Moloney, executive-director of GIFS, said this discovery will have a major impact on global food security. 

From my perspective, this is far more valuable than the entire budget for federal-provincial business risk programs, yet the researchers are constantly under pressure to source enough money for their projects.