The incorporation of exotic DNA from wild relatives into wheat results in a remarkable yield increase of up to 50%, even in hot weather, surpassing elite lines without these genes.
Amid a year of record-breaking temperatures, research from the Earlham Institute in Norwich and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) provides much-needed hope for enhancing crop resilience and securing food in the face of a changing climate.
The field trials in Mexico also emphasize the importance of genetic diversity in key crops, where decades of selective breeding have reduced their ability to adapt to a rapidly warming planet.
Wheat provides more global calories than any other crop yet most of the wheat grown around the world has limited genetic variation, making it vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
“Wheat is responsible for around 20 percent of the calories consumed globally and is widely grown all over the world,” says Professor Anthony Hall, study author and Group Leader at the Earlham Institute. “But we don’t know whether the crops we’re planting today will be able to cope with tomorrow’s weather.
“To make matters worse, developing new varieties can take a decade or more so acting quickly is vital.”
In collaboration with CIMMYT, Earlham Institute researchers set up a two-year field trial in Mexico’s Sonora desert. They studied 149 wheat lines, ranging from widely-used elite lines to those selectively bred to include DNA from wild relatives and landraces from Mexico and India.
“Crossing elite lines with exotic material has its challenges,” said Matthew Reynolds, co-author of the study and leader of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT.
“There’s a well-recognized risk of bringing in more undesirable than desirable traits, so this result represents a significant breakthrough in overcoming that barrier and the continued utilization of genetic resources to boost climate resilience.”
The seeds were sown later in the season to force the plants to grow during hotter months, putting these crops under the kind of heat stress that is predicted to become the norm as global temperatures rise.
They found the plants bred with exotic DNA achieved a 50 percent higher yield over wheat without this DNA. Importantly, the exotic lines didn’t perform any worse than the elite lines under normal conditions.
The researchers sequenced the plants to locate specific genetic differences responsible for the increased heat tolerance. They identified genetic markers that could allow the targeted introduction of this beneficial exotic DNA into elite lines, offering a quick way to improve climate resilience and mitigate against widespread crop failures.
Benedict Coombes, study author and Ph.D. student at the Earlham Institute, said: “As we try to produce more food from less land to feed a growing global population, we urgently need to future-proof the crops we’re planting so they can thrive in an increasingly hostile climate.
“The key to this, we are increasingly finding, may lie within largely untapped genetic resources from wheat’s wild relatives and landraces.”
The researchers suggest breeding programs incorporate the heat tolerance traits as a pre-emptive strategy to produce wheat crops that can cope with a less predictable climate.
“This is science we can now use to make an impact almost immediately,” added Professor Hall. “We’ve done the field trials, we know what genetic markers we’re looking for, and we’re starting conversations with wheat breeders so this is hopefully going to be the first of many steps to contribute to global food security in the coming years.
“The discoveries we’re making, and the action we’re taking, will hopefully mean people around the world can continue to have nutritious food on their plates.”

News
The Surprising Origin of a Deadly Hospital Infection
C. diff might not originate from external transmission but rather from within the infected patient themselves. Hospital staff dedicate significant effort to safeguard patients from infections during their hospital stay. Through practices ranging from [...]
Google AI breakthrough – huge step in finding genes that cause diseases
Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all [...]
New Study: Everyday Pleasures Can Boost Cognitive Performance
MINDWATCH study reveals cognitive peaks with everyday pleasures. Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person’s brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including [...]
Moderna reveals new highly targeted COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1283
Moderna has developed a new and improved version of its COVID-19 vaccine. The unique formulation (mRNA-1283) reduces the vaccine's content from the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to a narrowly focused encoding of just two [...]
New nanotech weapon takes aim at hard-to-treat breast cancer
Breast cancer in its various forms affects more than 250,000 Americans a year. One particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat type is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks specific receptors targeted by existing treatments. The rapid [...]
Scientists upcycle plastics into liquids that can store hydrogen energy
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a process that can upcycle most plastics into chemical ingredients useful for energy storage, using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a commercially available catalyst, all [...]
Yale Scientists Uncover How the Immune System Can Alter Our Behavior
The mere scent of seafood can severely sicken those allergic to it — and therefore they are more likely to avoid it. Similarly, individuals who experience food poisoning from a specific dish tend to [...]
Whirlwind Tech – The Future of Energy-Efficient Spintronics Computing
Researchers in Germany and Japan have been able to increase the diffusion of magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions, by a factor of ten. In today’s world, our lives are unimaginable without computers. Up until now, [...]
Omicron’s Silver Lining: Significantly Lower Risk of Long COVID
Omicron infections have a lower risk of long COVID than earlier variants, according to a study analyzing data from 11,000 participants. The risk of developing long COVID is significantly lower following an infection with [...]
The Hidden Mechanism Connecting Diabetes and Cancer
Researchers have discovered that insulin resistance, typically linked with type 2 diabetes, is also present in cancer patients and can accelerate the spread of the disease. In the 1920s, scientists found that the urine [...]
Scientists Unveil Urea’s Secret Role in the Origin of Life
Scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Geneva have developed a new technique that allows them to observe chemical reactions taking place in liquids at extremely high temporal resolution. This innovation enables them to track how molecules [...]
Viagra Lowers Alzheimer’s Risk by Almost 70%, Early Study Finds
Research published recently suggests that Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug Viagra can decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by up to 69 percent. The research, which was published in Nature, found that the medication has [...]
Future of Medical Imaging: Advanced AI Can Tell Your True Age by Looking at Your Chest
An AI-powered model utilizes chest X-rays to help develop biomarkers for aging. What if determining “your age” was based on your chest rather than your face? Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University have crafted an [...]
Ultra-sensitive biosensors detect cancer in a blood test
Cancer biomarkers circulating in body fluids can be used for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, current detection technology lacks the required sensitivity, limiting biomarker use in clinical applications. Colorectal cancer is the second most [...]
Viruses cause 200+ diseases. This one drug may be able to treat them all.
By taking aim at a process common across many viruses, the drug could one day stop any number of known viruses — and new ones. t’s about as audacious an idea as you can [...]
Scientists Identify Potential Treatment for Rare and Devastating Lung Disease
The findings could lead to a cure for LAM. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati may have identified a potential treatment for lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare lung condition resembling cancer found predominantly in women of reproductive [...]