Bread wheat shuffles its genes in a lopsided way, locking desirable traits like high yield together with undesirable ones as if they were cards stuck together with an elastic band. This matters because plant breeders cannot easily separate these linked traits through conventional cross-breeding. The natural process of meiotic recombination—the gene-shuffling that happens during seed formation—is skewed toward the ends of wheat chromosomes, leaving large central blocks that stay intact across generations. As a result, a breeder who wants to introduce disease resistance from one parent may also inherit a yield penalty from the same chromosomal block. The researchers aim to understand why this tethering occurs and then develop ways to break it, giving breeders control over which traits get dealt together. If successful, this fundamental science could unlock the vast natural variation already present in wheat. Breeders would be able to generate new combinations of genes—for example, higher protein content alongside pathogen resistance—without resorting to genetic modification. The UK’s largest wheat breeders, KWS and RAGT, are already involved to test the approach on real breeding targets. Down the line, new varieties could boost farm incomes, reduce reliance on imported grain, and make UK wheat more competitive overseas.
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In bread wheat, important agronomical traits are distributed along chromosomes. Traditionally, plant breeders cross high yielding parental lines and then select for progeny in subsequent generations that carry desirable attributes whist removing undesirable traits. However, the process of 'gene-shuffling' (meiotic recombination) is non-random and skewed towards the ends of the chromosomes. Therefore, desirable traits are often transmitted as a block together with undesirable traits. This is analogous to dealing a deck of cards where a significant proportion of the cards are tethered by an elastic band. In this case a desirable hand cannot be achieved until the elastic band is severed and the cards are able to segregate freely. In this proposal we aim to understand why desirable and undesirable traits in bread wheat are often tethered together, so that we can break this bond, and release the full potential of available natural variation. Then, we aim to modulate this process so that the plant breeder can decide which traits can be 'dealt' together in the same variety. This unlocking of wheat's natural variation will lead to the production, via classical plant breeding, of superior varieties with favourable agronomic traits such as increased yield and improved nutrient acquisition. To provide direct evidence that our research has application we will work with two of the UK's largest wheat breeders KWS and RAGT to target chromosomal regions, which are known to be transmitted as blocks. We will show that by using novel procedures, we can increase the amount of recombination in these blocks. Increasing the amount of recombination in any of these regions will enable breeders to generate new gene combinations which will lead to new varieties with, for instance, increased protein content or pathogen resistance. Further down the breeder's pipeline our research will directly translate to new varieties with superior characteristics that will help maintain farm incomes and improve sustainability of the UK arable and milling industries. In addition high yielding varieties will reduce dependence on imported grain and associated transport and environmental costs and improved pipelines for the generation of new UK varieties that will enhance reliability and competitiveness in overseas markets.
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