A quarter of old Indian wheat holds nearly all its genetic variety
Crop Improvement
The heirloom grain varieties that seed savers and small-plot growers keep alive carry traits like drought tolerance that modern wheat has lost, and this work shows which ones are worth protecting first.
Scientists read the DNA of more than 800 traditional wheat varieties from India, gathered decades ago and brought back into the country. They found a lot of hidden variety in these old types, and they picked a quarter of them that still hold almost every gene version in the full collection. Breeders can now start from that shorter list when they look for wheat that copes with a hotter, drier climate.
Key Findings
A core set of 25% of accessions retained 99.74% of alleles and showed similar or greater diversity than the full 928-accession panel (828 landraces plus 100 cultivars).
Population analysis found two major genetic clusters (K = 2) with finer subdivision into six groups; most variation was within groups rather than between them.
The B genome had the highest SNP density, followed by A and D; linkage disequilibrium decayed fastest in the A genome and slowest in the B genome, and landraces had lower nucleotide diversity than improved cultivars.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers mapped the DNA of 828 old Indian wheat landraces and 100 modern varieties, then picked a quarter of them that capture nearly all the genetic variety. That smaller set gives breeders a practical starting point for building wheat that handles heat and drought.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Molecular diversity analysis and development of a core set in wheat using array-based SNP markers
Landrace collections from decades represent sources of variation for wheat improvement to address challenges from climate change and the growing human population. Repatriating wheat landraces and i...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Wheat is a group of wild and domesticated grasses of the genus Triticum. As cereals, they are cultivated for their grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known wheat species and hybrids include the most widely grown common wheat, spelt, durum, emmer, einkorn, and Khorasan or Kamut....