Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 11212 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta Larsen got the idea from talking to Dr. David Major, who had been a research scientist at AAFC Lethbridge. The more Larsen thought about the idea, the more plausible it seemed. “With winter wheat, you plant it, it grows like a grass, it requires vernalization to elongate, and then it grows up, [pro- duces mature seeds] and dies. A perennial forage grass follows a similar process – it requires vernalization, it elongates. But then [in response to shorter daylengths and/or cooler temperatures] it tells some tillers to stay vegetative for next year,” says Larsen. “So in the annual, there is a gene that has been changed or silenced so the plant puts everything into [seed production]. But in the perennial that gene is still effective, telling some of the new mer- istems and tillers to stay vegetative until next year.” Through AAFC-funded research, Larsen is working with col- league Dr. Andre Laroche to find the gene or genes responsible for a perennial habit and to understand how those genes are switched on and off. Larsen suspects the flowering genes are key. Wheat’s flower- ing genes are already known, so he and Laroche have sequenced the wheatgrass flowering genes and are analyzing the expression of those genes. “What has been fascinating to us is that the DNA sequence of the flowering genes in wheatgrass and wheat are amazingly simi- lar, from 90 to maybe 99 per cent the same,” he says. “The other interesting thing is that throughout the plant’s life cycle, these genes in the annual and the perennial are actually regulated in the same way with some slight, important differences in some of the genes. Essentially the flowering pattern in an annual and a perennial is very similar.” So perhaps advanced techniques like gene editing could be used to make the flowering genes in an elite wheat variety 100 per cent the same as the perennial flowering genes. And those little changes might change the regulation of growth in the plant from annual to perennial. And, in theory, the resulting wheat plant would be fully fertile with all its excellent agronomic and quality traits intact, but with its perennial growth habit switched on. Larsen and Laroche have much more work to do to understand the complete mechanism of perennial growth habit, but so far Larsen’s hypothesis seems to be holding true. Down the Road Larsen expects it will be at least 10 to 15 years before commercial perennial wheat varieties are available for the Canadian Prairies. “People have worked on wheat x wheatgrass crosses for a long time; there has been limited success. They are making great pro- gress with Kernza, but it is still very much a work in progress.” Comin notes, “This work is still in its beginning stages. For producers to incorporate [perennial wheat] into their rotations as a marketable product it would need to bring them suitable value. This will require quality similar or equal to annual wheat. This quality, along with a sustained yield in subsequent years, will be key to the future of perennial wheat. Sustainability will certainly be a consideration, but profitability will be the deciding factor.” Once perennial wheat varieties achieve the necessary quality and productivity characteristics, Larsen believes the crop will be widely adopted on the Prairies. “With perennial wheat, you would only have to seed once every three years or so. That’s a bunch of work off a farmer’s plate. I firmly believe perennial wheat will be taken up just because of its advantages in terms of economics and workload.” The environmental benefits will be an important plus. Larsen notes, “At a meeting in the summer, I heard General Mills talking about perennial grains and how they would love to have a good source of perennial grain to put into their products. A lot of large food companies have sustainability as part of their mandate and have strategies to reduce their environmental footprint. There are companies waiting to use perennial grain.” He adds, “People need to start to dream about what perennial cereals would look like on their farms. For instance, researchers are working on polycultures and things like that. Do you want land in wheat for three years, or do you want to have other crops mixed in to maximize productivity? Maybe you could mix in leg- umes to provide nitrogen and reduce your costs. When you start to dream about what could happen, it becomes pretty exciting from efficiency and economic sustainability and environmental sustainability perspectives.” Carolyn King Larsen is crossing perennial cereal rye (left) and annual rye (right) is his work to develop new perennial cereal rye varieties with higher grain yields and other improvements.