In a landmark discovery for global wheat production, a University of Saskatchewan (USask)-led international team has sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world, enabling scientists and breeders to much more quickly identify influential genes for improved yield, pest resistance and other important crop traits.

The research results, just published in Nature, provide the most comprehensive atlas of wheat genome sequences ever reported. The 10+ Genome Project collaboration involved more than 95 scientists from universities and institutes in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the U.K., Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Israel, Australia, and the U.S.

“It’s like finding the missing pieces for your favourite puzzle that you have been working on for decades,” said project leader Curtis Pozniak, wheat breeder and director of the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC). “By having many complete gene assemblies available, we can now help solve the huge puzzle that is the massive wheat pan-genome and usher in a new era for wheat discovery and breeding.”

Read more: University of Saskatchewan

Cyclone Gati became the strongest storm to hit the country on record, bringing more than a year’s worth of rain in two days.

Three undergraduates created the prototype as part of Aggies Against COVID-19.

Farmers, breeders, and climatologists are keeping their eyes on the future of our favorite spuds.

Researchers at the University of York have created a new modified wheat variety that increases grain production by up to 12 per cent.

Over the past 40,000 years, ice sheets thousands of kilometres apart have influenced one another through sea level changes, according to research published today in Nature.

Prohibiting fishing in conservation reserves is a common strategy for protecting ocean ecosystems and enhancing fisheries management.

2020 is the worst fire year on record in the United States, with nearly 13 million acres burned, 14,000 structures destroyed and an estimated $3 billion spent on fire suppression — and counting.

Twice as much freshwater is stored offshore of Hawaii Island than was previously thought, according to a University of Hawaii study with important implications for volcanic islands around the world. An extensive reservoir of freshwater within the submarine southern flank of the Hualālai aquifer has been mapped by UH researchers with the Hawaii EPSCoR ʻIke Wai project.

Global warming already affects Siberian primrose, a plant species that is threatened in Finland and Norway.