Cracking cereal crops’ genetic code to improve yield and disease resistance

Although they are grown across nearly a billion hectares globally, little is known about the genetic basis for economically important traits in cereal crops such as wheat and oat. As Dr. Sean Walkowiak and his co-authors write in Accelerated Breeding of Cereal Crops, recent advances in technology will allow researchers to discover which parts of a cereal crop’s genetic code determine traits such as yield and disease resistance.

Cereal crops are a staple in the diets of humans and livestock all over the world. As the human population grows, the volume of cereals grown each year must as well. At the same time, producers who grow cereal crops are facing increasing challenges: climate change, pests, disease, and agro-ecosystem damage. Cereal breeders need to breed new varieties with increased yields and improved resistance to these challenges. In the past, breeders have developed new varieties through a slow process of selecting and breeding plants based on the traits they exhibit, such as yield potential, disease resistance, and ability to grow in specific environmental conditions.

Recent advances in science and technology will allow researchers to unravel the function of each part of a cereal crop’s genome. The genome is the set of genes and DNA contained in the cells of an organism. In cereal crops such as wheat and oat, these genetic instructions are very large and very complex. Until recently, the available tools for determining the pattern of these genetic instructions through genome sequencing had technical limitations and were too expensive. Thanks to the advent of new sequencing technologies with higher throughput and lower cost, breeders will be able to target exactly which traits they want to improve and develop better-performing varieties more quickly. These advances in functional genomics could eventually be used to give Canadian cereal producers access to new varieties created to meet the needs of grain buyers.