A BREAKTHROUGH in wheat research has raised hopes of combating disease and producing higher yields in the staple crop that feeds more than a third of the global population.

Over the course of 13 years, a major international research collaboration of more than 200 scientists from 73 research institutes in 20 countries has been at work produce a comprehensive map of a wheat genome; which will pave the way for more resilient and nutritious varieties of wheat.

“The publication of the wheat reference genome is the culmination of the work of many individuals who came together under the banner of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium to do what was considered impossible,” said the project's executive director Kellye Eversole.

The wheat genome is actually five times the size of the human genome, with now well over 100,000 genes and more than four million molecular markers already identified and positioned across 21 chromosomes in three sub-genomes. The consortium's findings describe more than 94% of the genome of Chinese Spring, a variety of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), which is the world’s most widely cultivated crop – but all wheat varieties will benefit from the knowhow.

Wheat productivity needs to increase by 1.6% a year to meet the demands of a projected world population of 9.6 billion by 2050. And to preserve biodiversity, water and nutrient resources, the world needs to produce more from existing cultivated land rather than cultivate more land.

Kostya Kanyuka who, with bio-informatician Rob King, represented Rothamsted Research in the IWGSC, explained how having a continuous and fully annotated sequence for each of the 21 wheat chromosomes is of paramount importance: “This will greatly speed up our efforts on identification of agriculturally important wheat genes, including those that would help to combat major fungal diseases. This will also be hugely and immediately beneficial for wheat breeders, accelerating development of new elite varieties.”