Scientists at the John Innes Centre, in collaboration with an international team of researchers, discovered the new ‘reduced height’ or semi-dwarf gene called Rht13.
Rht13
Rht13 is a new drought-resilient semi-dwarf wheat gene which can be grown in drier soil conditions.
It has given new hopes of sowing the crop in water-limited environments.
Reduced height gene means that seeds can be planted deeper in the soil, giving access to moisture, without the adverse effect on seedling emergence seen with existing wheat varieties.
Varieties of wheat with the Rht13 gene could be rapidly bred into wheat varieties to enable farmers to grow reduced-height wheat in drier soil conditions.
Wrapping Up
Since the 1960s and the Green Revolution, reduced height genes have increased global wheat yields because the short-stemmed wheat they produce puts more investment into the grains rather than into the stems and has improved standing ability.
However, these genes bred into wheat also have a significant disadvantage of not working in drought-like conditions. When these varieties are planted deeper to access moisture in water-limited environments, they can fail to reach the surface of the soil, the authors said.
The newly discovered gene overcomes this problem of seedling emergence because the gene acts in tissues higher-up in the wheat stem.
So, the dwarfing mechanism only takes effects once the seedling has fully emerged. This gives farmers a significant advantage when planting deeper in dry conditions.
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