Barley stems are snapping in heat, dropping grain heads
Rajendran NR, Rabanus-Wallace MT, Lu J, Fincher GB, Selva C
Climate Adaptation
If you've ever grown barley or wheat and watched a storm flatten your patch right before harvest, this is the same weak point breeders are racing to fix before hotter summers make it worse everywhere.
Barley plants sometimes snap right below the grain head during hot, dry weather, a problem called head loss that can wipe out a big chunk of the harvest. Scientists reviewed everything known about why this happens, from the stem's internal structure to plant hormones and genetics, and outlined tools like drone cameras and mechanical stem-strength tests to help breeders build tougher plants. The same approach could help other grain crops resist snapping in extreme weather too.
Key Findings
Head loss (stem breakage below the spike) is a major yield-limiting failure in barley, worsened by hot and dry growing conditions
Climate warming is predicted to increase head loss risk, but the genetic, anatomical, and hormonal causes remain poorly understood
Proposed solutions combine mechanical stem-strength testing, drone-based high-throughput spike counting, and genomic selection to breed more resilient cultivars
chevron_right Technical Summary
As heat and drought worsen, barley stems are snapping just below the grain head, dropping the whole harvest onto the ground before it can be collected. Scientists are reviewing how genetics, plant anatomy, and hormones control this stem failure to breed sturdier, climate-ready barley.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Structural failure in cereal stems under climate extremes: insights from barley head loss.
Structural failure of cereal stems during late-season climate extremes is a critical determinant of yield stability. In barley, breakage of the stem below the spike, known as head loss, leads to ma...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Gene editing removes 97% of celiac-triggering proteins from bread wheat
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. One of the first cultivated grains, it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikelets and making it much easier to harvest. Its use then spread throughou...