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Context

• Scientists at the John Innes Centre, in collaboration with an international team of researchers, discovered the new ‘reduced height’ or semi-dwarf gene called Rht13.

Rht13

• Rht13 is a new drought-resilient semi-dwarf wheat gene which can be grown in drier soil conditions.
• It has given new hopes of sowing the crop in water-limited environments.
• Reduced height gene means that seeds can be planted deeper in the soil, giving access to moisture, without the adverse effect on seedling emergence seen with existing wheat varieties.
• Varieties of wheat with the Rht13 gene could be rapidly bred into wheat varieties to enable farmers to grow reduced-height wheat in drier soil conditions.

Wrapping Up

• Since the 1960s and the Green Revolution, reduced height genes have increased global wheat yields because the short-stemmed wheat they produce puts more investment into the grains rather than into the stems and has improved standing ability.
• However, these genes bred into wheat also have a significant disadvantage of not working in drought-like conditions. When these varieties are planted deeper to access moisture in water-limited environments, they can fail to reach the surface of the soil, the authors said.
• The newly discovered gene overcomes this problem of seedling emergence because the gene acts in tissues higher-up in the wheat stem.
• So, the dwarfing mechanism only takes effects once the seedling has fully emerged. This gives farmers a significant advantage when planting deeper in dry conditions.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/scientists-discover-new-drought-resilient-wheat-gene-suitable-for-drier-soil-conditions-86266

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