Breeding of wheat has led to a decrease in its resistance. Free Technical Library News

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Wheat breeding has led to a decrease in its resistance

02.01.2019

Food security is largely determined by the yield of major crops. Climate change leads to changes in the weather, and, as a result, the variability of the harvest and food prices, and hence their availability. Uncertainty that food will be affordable causes waves of migration and political instability. To date, breeding methods can ensure a sufficient level of wheat yield in the current climatic conditions, but the climate is changing and many popular varieties may become underproductive.

Helena Kahiluoto of the Lappeenranta University of Technology and colleagues from other European universities analyzed wheat yield data from nine countries - Finland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Italy and Spain. The full data set consisted of almost 11 thousand numbers - the amount of wheat harvested per hectare, to which data on temperature, humidity, time and other parameters were compared. The scientists used data from 991 varieties of winter, spring and durum wheat grown between 1991 and 2014 in 636 locations in nine countries, as well as weather data from their growing areas in eight countries. At the first stage of the study, scientists chose climate change factors that have the greatest impact on crops (humidity, minimum temperatures at different times of the year, temperature changes). They then quantified the impact of climatic factors on crop yields.

The reason for the poor adaptation of plants to climate change, according to scientists, is a decrease in genetic diversity. Selection in favor of a few desired characteristics of the culture impoverishes the gene pool due to the disappearance of screened alleles. The genetic diversity of wheat began to decline after the 1990s. Researchers attribute this decline to an increase in the number of small-scale wheat producers. Increasing competition forced us to shorten the production cycle without wasting time on technological improvements.

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