October 9, 2003

 

Developing New Genetic Resources in Wheat

The National Science Foundation has awarded North Dakota State University a $1.8 million grant to develop new genetic resources in wheat. The lead researcher at NDSU is Shahryar Kianian, associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences.

NDSU is the lead institution for the project. Other universities involved are Oregon State University, the University of California, Davis, the University of Arizona in Tucson and Kansas State University.

"Essentially, what we’re doing is ‘knocking out’ genes in a plant," Kianian says. "Then we’ll look to see what happens to the plant. For example, we will be able to tell if a particular gene or set of genes make the plant grow taller, shorter or is able to better tolerate drought."

The process of "knocking out" genes is called mutagenesis. During this process, genes are removed using certain chemicals.

For the project, Kianian and a group of colleagues from across the U.S. will generate about 40,000 mutated lines. They hope to establish international collaboration to eventually create 80,000 mutated lines. "With that many lines, we will have ‘knocked out’ almost every gene in the plant," Kianian says. "We’ll be able to tell what was beneficial or what was detrimental to the plant. In the long run, it will help us breed wheat varieties that are better adapted to the needs of the food processing industry or have unique utility in the market."

Mutagenesis is different than transgenic research, Kianian notes. "With mutagenesis we are removing a gene that exists in the plant while transgenic research involves adding genes from a different source. All of the gene knock outs are chemically induced."

In nature, approximately one of every million wheat seeds mutates, Kianian says. "If you walk through a field you’ll eventually notice one plant that is taller, shorter or has some other variation. In some cases, the mutated plant would be very beneficial for producers to grow, however, it may take someone a lifetime to find that plant. Mutagenesis greatly speeds up that process."

The wheat that will be used in the project is a diploid wheat, Triticulmun monococcum. It is grown in the Middle East and is the ancestor to modern day wheat. "All the results will be applicable to durum and bread wheat because all the genes are the same," Kianian says. "Hard red spring wheat has six sets of identical genes and durum has four. A diploid wheat has only two identical copies so it’s easier to work with and identify the beneficial change."

The mutated seeds will be stored at NDSU as well as the other four universities. Kansas State University, through the Wheat Genetics Resource Center, will be responsible for distributing the seeds to the public. "We will also develop a database to disseminate the information generated by this research and future experiments to the public," Kianian says.

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Source: Shahryar Kianian, (701) 231-7574, s.kianian@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu