Wheat Genetics Resource Center evaluates wild wheat relatives
The Wheat Genetics Resource Center (WGRC) is a secret gem in the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center. The Wheat Genetics Resource Center is an international wheat gene bank that stores over 700,000 seeds and 14,000 accessions. The WGRC has a climate-controlled storage environment for these seeds and greenhouse space to help plants germinate and flourish in order for research to be conducted. While a lot of their research is done in the building, another important aspect to the WGRC is their field plots.
Recently, at the Rocky Ford Field Day, the WGRC scientists showed people the hard work they have accomplished over the past year of research. People who attended this event had the chance to see all of the wild wheat species that the WGRC research team is growing on these plots. The WGRC grow wild wheat species on these plots to look for characteristics that may be valuable to Kansas wheat growers and could potentially be bred into our modern varieties in the future. One trait researchers are specifically looking for is rust resistance in these wild wheats. When scientists plant these wild wheats, they are curious to see how they adjust in the actual climate of Kansas that they cannot control.
Some of the wild wheats are flourishing in the Kansas environment this year, while others are on the slow growing side with the rain that Manhattan has received. Even when the varieties fail to thrive in Kansas, that data is extremely valuable to the WGRC team.
According to Jon Raupp, Senior Scientist at the WGRC, “The research we do here at the WGRC is important because we discovered the ancestors of wheat and continuously learn characteristics of new wild wheats that we grow.”
Knowing the different types of wheat and their purposes can be a tricky concept to grasp, but the scientists at WGRC are dedicated to learning all the ins and outs about these trait-rich wild wheats. The characteristics in these wild wheats that are grown in Rocky Ford can have microscopic differences, but these differences can be crucial. All the wild wheats that are grown in the test plots are grown with a purpose. These scientists utilize all the information that they gather with growing these wheats.
“Every species has different characteristics, and sometimes it’s tricky to find those characteristics. Some species you know before it’s fully grown and others we have to more research to discover the species,” Raupp says.
The research done at the WGRC is important for everybody in the wheat industry. Other scientists use the results that they find at the WGRC to better the production of wheat both in Kansas and around the globe. The scientists at the WGRC are very active in their research that they do. They are passionate about the collection they have curated over decades of research. The work done at the WGRC will continue to grow, and they’ll discover new things about wheat, so stay tuned for what they find next!
For more information about the WGRC and our research team, visit https://www.k-state.edu/wgrc/staff.html to learn more about the brains behind the operation and what they accomplish.