Indian Agri-Scientists to produce heat-tolerant wheat varieties to improve improved grain yield

India may soon have a unique ‘heat tolerant’ wheat variety that would not affect its productivity under heat stress—which causes a dramatic reduction in yield and quality loss of wheat.

Thanks to a young Indian scientist who found a bio-engineering technology to develop 'heat-tolerant' wheat variety.

Wheat is one of the main crops world over and nurtures more than one third of the world population. The main problem in the wheat cultivation is that its production and nutrients reduces drastically in case of high temperature.

The Indian Scientist, Dr Vijay Gahlaut, who is faculty at the Biotechnology division at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur (Himahcal) has found a heritable genes for the wheat crop that do not buckle under heat stress and non-stress conditions during different grain filling stages.

His research could be one of the most promising solutions to improve wheat productivity by engineering elite wheat varieties with enhanced heat stress tolerance and increase grain yield

He has further proposed to carry this out through a process called epigenomic mapping, which will also help in the identification of natural epigenetic variation.

 

In order to find a ‘heat-resistant wheat variety’, Dr Vijay Gahlaut, an Inspire Faculty Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), found the epigenetic route to modify gene expression in a manner that is stably transmitted but do not involve differences in the underlying DNA sequence. With this the heritable genes do not buckle under heat stress and non-stress conditions during different grain filling stages.

He has proposed to identify the role of DNA methylation (a biological process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule) patterns of heat stress-tolerant and heat stress-sensitive wheat genotypes during different grain filling stages.

He would carry this out through a process called epigenomic mapping, which will also help in the identification of natural epigenetic variation. He has recently published his research in  the journal ‘Genomics’ and wrote on give details of the differential expression pattern of C5-MTase genes under heat stress suggesting their role in stress response in wheat. It would prove a major clue to producing heat-tolerant productive wheat varieties.

The utilization of identical genes that differ in the extent of methylation known asepialleles identified through his research could be one of the most promising solutions to improving wheat productivity by engineering elite wheat varieties with enhanced heat stress tolerance and increase grain yield.

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