Jorge Dubcovsky News Today

An international team of scientists found that the right number of copies of a specific group of genes can stimulate longer root growth.

The University of California, Davis is spearheading a five-year, $15 million research project into the impact climate change may have on wheat, and accelerating the development of varieties that will respond better to increased heat, if needed.

Current projects show that without major emissions reductions, intensifying droughts brought on by human-caused climate change could cut global wheat crop yields in half.

UC Davis plant geneticist Pam Ronald has been named the recipient of the 2022 International Wolf Prize in Agriculture, given by the Jerusalem-based Wolf Foundation in recognition of her “pioneering work on disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance in rice.”

UC Davis is leading a $15 million research project to accelerate wheat breeding in response to climate change.

Food news from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources

In 2001, new strains of stripe rust — an aggressive wheat fungal disease typically associated with cooler, damper climates — began to emerge in California. The new strains were more virulent and better adapted to warmer climates throughout the world.  By 2003, the strains had caused an epidemic in the U.S., wiping out 25 percent of California’s wheat crop, says Jorge Dubcovsky, plant geneticist and professor of plant sciences who leads the small grains breeding program at...