Wheat Quality Evolution and New Breeding-by-Design Strategies
A research team led by the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has assembled a high-quality reference genome of the Jimai 44 wheat variety, providing a detailed map of the genetic factors that determine grain quality.
The study, published in Nature Plants, focused on the strong-gluten wheat variety Jimai 44, which is one of the most widely cultivated of its kind in China. By resolving the fine-scale structure of gluten protein loci, researchers aimed to overcome long-standing obstacles in wheat breeding. Gluten proteins, which dictate the elasticity and extensibility of dough, are encoded by genes that are structurally complex, highly repetitive, and clustered within the genome, making these regions historically difficult for scientists to fully resolve.
To reconstruct the evolutionary trajectory of wheat processing quality, the team led by LU Fei, in collaboration with CAO Xinyou’s team from the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, integrated the Jimai 44 reference genome with a whole-genome variation map derived from 485 wheat and related accessions.
This genomic analysis allowed the researchers to trace how quality traits evolved across several distinct stages: initial domestication, polyploidization, dissemination across Eurasia, and the processes of modern Chinese breeding. The findings clarify how strong-gluten traits were developed and adapted through these evolutionary and human-driven phases.
The resolution of these complex genomic regions addresses a critical gap in agricultural science. Previously, the structural complexity of gluten-encoding genes limited the discovery of key quality-related variants and hindered a complete understanding of the molecular basis of superior wheat quality.
The research team is using these insights to propose new “breeding-by-design” strategies. These strategies are intended to replace traditional methods with more efficient and precise breeding techniques based on the newly identified evolutionary and molecular markers of wheat quality.