New research by the University of California and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have made it possible to clone a gene that controls the flowering time of barley and wheat.Called VRN3, differences in this gene are essential to adapt these two crop species to different climates.

Conducted by Professor Jorge Dubcovsky, a wheat breeder and leader of the research group and by plant geneticists Ann E. Blechl of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, the findings we’re presented in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.

The existence of winter and spring is one of the critical differences that help wheat and barley adapt to different environments. Winter wheat and barley are planted in the fall, but only flower in the very cold of winter weather which is called the ‘’vernalization requirement.’’

On the other hand, spring wheat and barley do not have the vernalization requirement and can be planted in the spring. In places where winter weather is so severe that cereals cannot be planted, this is essential.

‘’During the domestication of these species, the different mutations that occurred in the vernalization genes were selected by humans, resulting in spring varieties better adapted to certain regions. This flexibility has helped wheat to become one of the world’s most important crops.’’ Said Professor Dubcovsky.

Wheat provides 23 percent of the food available for daily human consumption around the world as stated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

After cloning the genes, VRN1 and VRN2, two years ago, VRN3 completes 10 years of research to understand the genetic regulation of the vernalization requirement in barley and wheat.

Researchers transformed the winter wheat variety Jagger with the VRN3 gene from the spring variety Hope.The modified plants flowered early, characteristic of the spring wheat, but the non-transgenic plants failed to flower in the absence of vernalization.

‘’The VRN3 mutation we discovered in the wheat variety Hope can now be used to accelerate flowering time of other wheat varieties. The VRN3 molecular markets developed in this industry will help breeders to detect the mutations present in their breeding lines and study their effects on the adaptability of wheat and barley varieties to particular environments.’’ Dubcobsky said.