10,000 years of wheat and barley selection reveal shared climate-adaptation genes
Researchers have reconstructed 10 ancestral paleogenomes to identify genes shared across 84 plant species. This study highlights genetic variants in wheat and barley that have facilitated climate adaptation over 10,000 years of domestication.
Why it matters
Understanding these ancestral genes provides critical tools for breeders to develop climate-resilient crops, which is essential for global food security.
edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Ear of wheat. Credit: INRAE, Gerard Paillard Research teams from INRAE, the University of Clermont Auvergne and the CNRS have reconstructed 10 ancient genomes (paleogenomes) that are the common ancestors of 84 botanical species of agronomic interest. Their work makes it possible to identify particular genes, shared across different species of plants and retained throughout their evolutionary history, that might play a key role in adapting to environmental constraints such as drought.
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