New wheat diversity discovery could provide an urgently-needed solution to global food security
Newly-discovered diversity in the wheat genome could offer vital new opportunities to improve and ‘climate-proof’ one of the world’s most important staple crops.
Earlham Institute
Wheat has a very large and complex genome. Researchers have found that different varieties can use their genes in different ways. By studying RNA—the molecules that carry out instructions from DNA—researchers can see which genes are active and when. By mapping this gene activity for the first time, researchers are able accelerate international wheat breeding programmes, developing new varieties of wheat which can adapt to the rapidly escalating climate emergency.
Wheat is the most widely cultivated crop in the world, with over 215 million hectares grown annually. To meet the demands of a growing global population, plant breeders face the challenge of increasing wheat production by an estimated 60 per cent within the next 40 years.
The wheat pan-transcriptome offers a powerful tool to help meet this challenge. It will enable plant breeders to accelerate yield improvements and develop more resilient wheat varieties—better equipped to cope with rising temperatures, water shortages, and poor soil quality. Importantly, this can be done without increasing reliance on fertilisers, which are linked to biodiversity loss and pollution.
Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the Earlham Institute and co-first author Dr Rachel Rusholme-Pilcher said: “We’ve revealed layers of hidden diversity spanning our modern wheat variations. This diversity is likely to underpin the success of wheat over such a wide range of global environments.
“We discovered how groups of genes work together as regulatory networks to control gene expression. Our research allowed us to look at how these network connections differ between wheat varieties revealing new sources of genetic diversity that could be critical in boosting the resilience of wheat.”
Furthermore, this work has created an important resource for the worldwide wheat research community - a clear example of how national and international collaboration and new technologies can lead to scientific breakthroughs in global food security.
Much of the untapped genetic diversity may stem from how wheat has adapted to different environments over time, shaped by over 100 years of modern breeding and more than 10,000 years of cultivation.
Deputy Group Leader in the Plant Genome and Systems Biology Group at Helmholtz Munich Dr Manuel Spannagl, said: “The new expression atlas allowed us to independently predict and compare the gene content of the wheat cultivars. We used those gene predictions together with the pan-transcriptome data to identify pronounced variation in the prolamin superfamily and immune-reactive proteins across cultivars.”
Transcript isoform sequencing and de novo annotation was carried out by the Technical Genomics and Core Bioinformatics Groups at the Earlham Institute through the BBSRC-funded National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics.
Dr Karim Gharbi, Head of Technical Genomics at the Earlham Institute, said: “This work demonstrates the power of technology to reveal novel biology, in this case hidden functional diversity which had not been documented before. Wheat pangenomics resources are growing rapidly with more diversity yet to be discovered.”
ENDS
Funding acknowledgement
The study was supported by the BBSRC-funded Decoding Biodiversity research programme and National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics at the Earlham Institute, as well as the BBSRC cross-institute Delivering Sustainable Wheat programme.
Notes to editors
The paper ‘De Novo Annotation Reveals Transcriptomic Complexity Across the Hexaploid Wheat Pan-Genome’ is published in Nature Communications.
The study was conducted as part of the International 10+ Wheat Genome Project, and involved a global collaboration of scientists from countries including Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
Please contact communications@earlham.ac.uk for further information or media enquiries.
About the Earlham Institute
The Earlham Institute is a hub of life science research, training, and innovation focused on understanding the natural world through the lens of genomics.
Embracing the full breadth of life on Earth, our scientists specialise in developing and testing the latest tools and approaches needed to decode living systems and make predictions about biology.
The Earlham Institute is based within the Norwich Research Park and is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from BBSRC, as well as support from other research funders.
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About Helmholtz Munich
Helmholtz Munich is a leading biomedical research center. Its mission is to develop breakthrough solutions for better health in a rapidly changing world. Interdisciplinary research teams focus on environmentally triggered diseases, especially the therapy and prevention of diabetes, obesity, allergies, and chronic lung diseases. With the power of artificial intelligence and bioengineering, researchers accelerate the translation to patients. Helmholtz Munich has around 2,500 employees and is headquartered in Munich/Neuherberg. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, with more than 43,000 employees and 18 research centers the largest scientific organization in Germany.
More about Helmholtz Munich (Helmholtz Zentrum München Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt GmbH): www.helmholtz-munich.de/en
Journal
Nature Communications
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
De Novo Annotation Reveals Transcriptomic Complexity Across the Hexaploid Wheat Pan-Genome
Article Publication Date
6-Oct-2025
