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“Pasta wheat” genome mapped – new perspectives for breeding
Apr. 10, 2019
An international research consortium has published the complete genome sequence of durum (pasta) wheat in Nature Genetics. Their paper not only provides insights into the development of this cereal through to the crop plant as we know it today, but also demonstrates possible ways of optimizing the plant through selective breeding. A key role in the study was played by researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben as well as by Italian and Canadian institutes.*Humans have been cultivating durum wheat (Triticum durum) for thousands of years. Along with common wheat (Triticum aestivum) it is the most economically significant variety. Durum wheat is used not only to make bulgur and couscous, but also Italian pasta products. Modern varieties of the wheat are derived from wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides) as the result of domestication and selective breeding. While the human genome contains around 20,000 genes, researchers have found three times that number in durum wheat – to be precise, 66,559 genes. Eighty percent of the genome sequence is composed of repetitive sequences, also known as repeats.
“Our analysis of the Svevo variety shows how breeding has altered the genome,” says Prof. Klaus Mayer, head of the Plant Genome and Systems Biology (PGSB) Department, Helmholtz Zentrum München. “Comparisons with the wild emmer genome sequence, which was published in 2017**, show the areas in which differences exist.” The team found several regions, some of them overlapping, which had been altered by human intervention. These areas are distributed across the entire genome.
However, the scientists discovered that breeding also resulted in undesirable characteristics being selected: if the soil contains cadmium, the heavy metal accumulates in modern durum wheat but not in wild emmer. “This is due to a gene referred to as TdHMA3-B1, which in durum wheat – in contrast to emmer – no longer has a function,” explains Dr. Manuel Spannagl, group leader in the Plant Genome and Systems Biology (PGSB) group at Helmholtz Zentrum München. TdHMA3-B1 codes for a protein that functions as a metal transporter. It eliminates cadmium from emmer but not from durum wheat. “This demonstrates the contribution that genome research is making to modern crop breeding,” says Dr. Spannagl, noting that possible research aims would be to reduce the cadmium burden through selective breeding as well as to generate varieties that are more resistant to heat and drought.
Original publication:
Maccaferri, M et al (2019): Durum wheat genome reveals past domestication signatures and 2 future improvement targets. Nature Genetics. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-019-0381-3
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