Scientists Discover Gene That Could Triple Wheat Production

University of Maryland researchers discovered a gene that makes a rare form of wheat grow three ovaries per flower instead of one—a trait that could help farmers triple the kernels of wheat produced per acre. Their work was published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wheat flowers with three ovaries were initially discovered in a spontaneously occurring mutant of common bread wheat, but it was unclear what genetic changes led to it. The UMD team created a highly detailed map of the multi-ovary wheat’s DNA and discovered that a normally dormant gene was “switched on” in the multi-ovary wheat. When the gene is active early in flower development, it enlarges the flower-building tissues, enabling them to produce extra female parts like pistils or ovaries.

If breeders can control or mimic this genetic trick of activating that gene, they could design new wheat varieties that grow more kernels per plant. Wheat is one of the world’s staple crops, feeding billions of people every day, and even small gains in the number of kernels per plant can translate into huge increases in food supply at the global scale.

“Pinpointing the genetic basis of this trait offers a path for breeders to incorporate it into new wheat varieties, potentially increasing the number of grains per spike and overall yield,” said Vijay Tiwari, associate professor of plant sciences and co-author of the study. “By employing a gene editing toolkit, we can now focus on further improving this trait for enhancing wheat yield. This discovery provides an exciting route to develop cost-effective hybrid wheat."

In addition to Tiwari, other authors from UMD’s Department of Plant Sciences include lead author and faculty assistant Adam Schoen, Professor Yiping Qi, Professor Emeritus Angus Murphy, Associate Professor Nidhi Rawat, Assistant Professor Daniel Rodriguez-Leal, Assistant Research Scientist Weifeng Luo, Ph.D. student Anmol Kajla, Postdoctoral Associate Parva Kumar Sharma and Alex Mahlandt ’18, M.S. ’20.