Wheat Genetics & Germplasm Improvement
In a paper published Nov. 25 in Nature, Kansas State University researchers, in collaboration with the international 10+ Genome Project announced the complete genome sequencing of 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world
11.25.2020
Plant Pathology associate professor, Jesse Poland and postdoctoral fellow Jared Crain received the inaugural 2020 Plant Genome Outstanding Paper Award for their publication “Combining high-throughput phenotyping and genomic information to increase prediction and selection accuracy in wheat breeding.” The journal selects one paper per year based on the work’s advancement of knowledge in the profession, effectiveness of […]
10.16.2020
MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University wheat geneticist is receiving nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through its Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, for two projects to improve the genetic diversity of wheat. Modern wheat is historically a genetically narrow species. Centuries of focused breeding to […]
06.18.2020
Capstone publication of the first five years of collaboration through our USAID Feed the Future project. These results will speed up global efforts to breed more productive & climate-resilient varieties of bread wheat.
10.01.2019
On the north side of campus, a refrigerated storage room contains wheat seed that helped grow ingredients for your morning toast.
04.25.2019
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today the extension of two research partnerships, totaling $17 million, with Kansas State University that are helping to combat global hunger.
08.23.2018
Kansas State University scientists, in collaboration with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, published today in the international journal Science a detailed description of the complete genome of bread wheat, the world’s most widely-cultivated crop.
08.16.2018
A new genetic directory launched today will enable researchers and breeders to scan the genomes of wild relatives of modern wheat to find disease-fighting properties lost to domestication.
04.05.2018
It may be approaching winter in Kansas, but the field work on wheat genetics is going full steam for wheat scientist Jesse Poland.
10.09.2017
The world’s population is expected to grow from 7.5 billion people today to nearly 10 billion by the year 2050. Experts predict that the world’s farmers will have to produce as much food in the next 35 years as they have in the entire history of the world to feed everyone.
10.05.2017
A nationally funded project by Kansas State University wheat researchers could help determine more quickly which new candidate varieties of wheat will produce superior yields and baking quality.
06.27.2017
Kansas State University researchers have identified a gene that will provide resistance to the wheat streak mosaic virus, a disease that is currently causing economic losses in Kansas fields.
06.09.2017
Two agriculture researchers at Kansas State University have received federal fellowships totaling $246,660 to study issues that affect local and worldwide food systems.
02.15.2017
Kansas State University’s Daljit Singh is the graduate student recipient of the Award for Scientific Excellence in a Feed the Future Innovation Lab from the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development.
10.13.2016
Global populations are booming, food demand is skyrocketing and climate change is threatening food security — meanwhile, access to mobile technology is becoming commonplace. The ground is fertile to harness the power of this global mobile network to create and implement tools to accelerate the development of food crops that can withstand the coming challenges of the 21st century.
08.30.2016
Many heads turned when drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, started hovering over the expansive farmlands of Kansas. It was not a military exercise. Researchers at Kansas State University are using drones for a very different purpose — to develop a climate-resilient wheat variety that can combat rising heat and drought.
08.24.2016
A team of breeders and geneticists at Kansas State University and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, or CIMMYT, has come up with a new approach to determine if new varieties of bread wheat will have what it takes to make better bread.
07.01.2016
Plant breeders test their experiments by growing the seeds of their labor. They cross two different plants that have desirable traits. They sow the resulting seeds and evaluate the results, hoping to find a candidate variety that is better than anything currently available.
06.22.2016
Following the January 2016 announcement of the production of a whole genome assembly for bread wheat, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), having completed quality control, is now making this breakthrough resource available for researchers via the IWGSC wheat sequence repository at URGI-INRA-Versailles, France.
06.14.2016
Tucked quietly away in the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center is a treasure trove of genetics from around the globe. The Wheat Genetics Resource Center (WGRC) is an internationally-recognized gene bank that curates and houses more than 247,500 seeds from 2,500 wheat and wild wheat species accessions. While maintaining the collection in a climate and humidity controlled environment is an important cornerstone of the WGRC, it is not the only function of the organization.
05.13.2016
Scott Chapman, senior principal research scientist, CSIRO Agriculture, University of Queensland, Australia, will present “Field Phenomics in Breeding” from 3:45-4:45 p.m. March 24 in 4031 Throckmorton Hall.
03.24.2016
The National Science Foundation has given a big thumbs up to Kansas State University research on determining the most promising plant traits to help increase food production.
01.21.2016
Jesse Poland, Kansas State University assistant professor and assistant director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center, in collaboration with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, has announced the production of an improved whole genome assembly of bread wheat, the most widely grown cereal in the world.
01.08.2016
It’s invisible to the human eye, but measured in microseconds, and helping shape the future of Kansas wheat varieties. Sounds like science fiction, but research funded by the Kansas Wheat Alliance is using near-infrared light measurements to dramatically speed up the process of selecting higher yielding, more heat and drought tolerant wheat lines.
12.01.2015
Plant pathology graduate student Emily Delorean is the fifth K-State student to receive Monsanto’s prestigious Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program fellowship. Delorean was inspired at a young age to help others. This lead her into the field of plant breeding, where she hopes to contribute to developing improved crop varieties and change the lives of subsistence […]
09.28.2015
Crippling climate changes, coupled with a growing population, threaten food security, economic welfare and social harmony in South Asia—a region heavily dependent on wheat for its nutrition and income. But in the race to fight hunger, the development of new wheat varieties that can withstand harsh growing conditions is severely hindered by traditionally laborious and time-consuming breeding processes. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics(opens in new window), led by Kansas State University, works with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia to address this issue. It is creating new solutions and technologies to get high-yielding, climate-resilient wheat varieties into the hands of farmers in India and Pakistan years sooner.
09.23.2015
Kansas State University wheat researchers are leading efforts to develop a better understanding of the wheat genome.
08.04.2015
The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) is taking advantage of new technological advances in phenotyping that have the potential to increase wheat yields, measure field data more efficiently and save farmers time and labor. Phenotyping involves measuring the observable traits of crops, a process that can be long and tedious for wheat breeders who walk through fields collecting data on individual plants. Uttam Kumar, associate scientist with CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, is testing several phenotyping innovations in collaboration with Jesse Polland, assistant breeder, and Daljit Singh, Ph.D. student, both from Kansas State University (KSU), in an effort to adapt new technologies to the specific needs of breeders in South Asia and make phenotyping wheat faster and more efficient.
05.25.2015
What if there was a Netflix for wheat breeders? But, instead of suggesting movies, the algorithm “suggested” the best potential wheat varieties – generations before being planted in a test plot?
12.04.2014
Beneath a steely and frigid Minnesota sky, the warm orange glow of a greenhouse beckons me to enter. But getting inside requires special security clearance and the donning of a white Tyvek gown, and visitors must shower upon leaving. Scrambling up a snowdrift outside the glass building affords me a less encumbered peek at what’s inside: row upon row of wheat plants, riddled with a fungal pathogen that has destroyed countless hectares of the crop in Africa and, more recently, the Middle East.
05.31.2014
Plants closely related to crop species, such as wild maize in Mexico and wild rice in West Africa, often happily grow in and around the disturbed soils of agricultural fields, passing their genes along to these crops with the help of wind and insects. Some traditional farmers even encourage such “weeds” because they recognize that their presence has a positive effect on their crops.
05.31.2014
Wheat is the most important food crop worldwide and a principal source of nutrients in some of the poorest countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But wheat, like all living organisms, is unimaginably complex.
CIMMYT scientist Matthew Reynolds believes that for this reason we need a whole consortium of scientists to improve its yield. This video highlights work that has already been done to increase the productivity of wheat through research in spike photosynthesis, roots and breeding. Because when it comes down to it, crop yields cannot be improved overnight, certainly not sustainably. It takes time and investment, and by planning ahead we are actually trying to preempt a disaster, with research and with partnership.
11.14.2012
Wheat is a very important crop around the world, but just like other organisms, it is susceptible to a variety of diseases. This video delves into the world of plant breeders and plant pathologists. It takes a look at some of the biotic constraints on our wheat crops, and how plant breeding can alleviate their damage to this vital commodity.
09.19.2012
An ARS scientist in Ithaca, New York, is using a new statistical approach to help speed the development of improved varieties of crops.
Plant breeders constantly strive to breed new varieties that yield more, resist emerging pests and pathogens, tolerate heat and drought, and grow in marginal soils and environments. Increasingly, molecular tools are used to speed those efforts. By identifying genes associated with desirable traits, scientists don’t have to wait for time-consuming field observations.
04.16.2012
The dun wheat field spreading out at Ravi P. Singh’s feet offered a possible clue to human destiny. Baked by a desert sun and deliberately starved of water, the plants were parched and nearly dead.
Dr. Singh, a wheat breeder, grabbed seed heads that should have been plump with the staff of life. His practiced fingers found empty husks.
06.04.2011
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