In a groundbreaking study published in Nature, scientists have uncovered a trove of genetic diversity in an antique collection of 827 wheat landraces, which could offer solutions to modern wheat’s vulnerabilities. This research highlights how these long-forgotten varieties might enhance the resilience of contemporary wheat crops against disease, heat, and drought.
The landrace collection, assembled in England beginning in 1924 by Arthur Ernest Watkins, was preserved through periodic sowing and seed collection. This vast genetic repository, now managed by the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich, England, has provided invaluable insights into wheat’s genetic potential. Watkins’ initial efforts to catalog wheat samples from across the British Empire resulted in 7000 samples from 32 countries. Despite some losses during World War II and the erosion of genetic diversity due to modern farming practices, the collection remains a critical “snapshot of time,” as described by Alison Bentley, a wheat geneticist at Australian National University.
Recent advancements in genome sequencing have unveiled the impressive diversity within these historic landraces. Simon Griffiths and Shifeng Cheng led an extensive project that sequenced the genomes of these landraces and compared them with 208 modern wheat varieties. The results were staggering: the historic landraces contain twice as much genetic diversity as contemporary varieties. This discovery is likened to finding a “gold mine” by Cheng, an evolutionary geneticist from the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen.
The research team has already identified genes within the landraces that could potentially reduce modern wheat’s dependence on nitrogen fertilizer and enhance its resistance to diseases like wheat blast. This gene, Pm4, was found to offer resistance against a particularly virulent strain of wheat blast, which threatens harvests in Southeast Asia. Such traits are critical as the global wheat supply faces challenges from climate change and disease.
The potential applications of these findings are substantial. Breeders are now experimenting with these historic traits to improve wheat varieties. For example, researchers in China are incorporating traits from the Watkins collection to enhance wheat’s growth in salty soils, while in India, efforts are underway to boost disease resistance using seeds from the collection. However, as noted by Mark Sorrells, a wheat breeder at Cornell University, incorporating these traits into modern varieties will require patience and may take a decade or more. The comprehensive genomic resources and seed samples from the Watkins collection are available to researchers worldwide at no cost, fostering global collaboration in wheat improvement.