Flat Aggie Visits the Wheat Genetics Resource Center

Here in the Wheat State, Flat Aggie spent the day learning about the Wheat Genetics Resource Center and all the fascinating innovations underway there. You can find this cool, sciencey place at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan! The folks who work here are on a mission: to find wheat genetics that can stand up to diseases and can be as nutritious as possible. You see, plants are a lot like humans. They can ‘catch’ diseases, viruses and even be pothered by pests that make them less healthy. When plants aren’t healthy they don’t make as many seeds, and those seeds are what farmers really want.

At the WGRC, they have wheat relatives from all over the world and from a wide span of years. They put the wheat seeds in a big walk in refrigerator. The cold keeps the seeds dormant, similar to when you sleep, so they won’t germinate or sprout. They have about 14,000 different species of wild wheat and then 10,000 genetic stock.

Let’s head on over to the greenhouses to see what is going on!

After chilling out a bit, we were on our way to go check out the greenhouses. With specific lighting and temperatures, wheat is able to grow no matter the weather outside! Here we see a modern wheat variety as its grain begins to develop. You can even see the little flowers that are on the wheat plant! There are generally two to nine of these little flowers, referred to as “florets”.

We also checked out heritage varieties and compared them to modern wheat. Some types of wheat were SO tall! It was really neat! The WGRC has these relatives to see if they have any traits, like needing less water or not catching certain diseases, that our farmers may like to have in their wheat.

Over the many years of picking the best plants and using them for seed, our farmers have been really good at breeding for specific characteristics that they want, like yield (the number of seeds the plant makes) or height (it’s easier to harvest wheat that is 3 feet tall rather than 6 feet tall). When we favor those certain traits, it means that others are left behind. But just because those traits weren’t important to farmers 200 years ago doesn’t mean they aren’t important now! Researchers are working to rediscover these hidden traits and figure out how to bring them into our new wheat. Wheat research is like a giant treasure hunt! There’s so many different kinds of wheat, ancient and modern, the WGRC is kind of like a family reunion 10,000 years in the making.

Thank you so much for letting us learn more about the genetics of wheat, it was fantastic!