# [Partners #14/National Research Initiative]{.underline}

Final Script, Wonder of Wheat

**Jorge Dubcovsky/ University of California-Davis**

It's a beautiful plant that you can grow everywhere. It has moved with
the people from the beginning of civilization, and it's linked to that
origin of that civilization.

Wheat has this fantastic plasticity, capacity of growing one place or
change some of its characteristics and grow in a completely different
environment. That is something that has fascinated me all the time.

**Narrator**

Jorge Dubcovsky's fascination with wheat has led him down several paths
of discovery that are funded by the National Research Initiative.

**Jorge Dubcovsky**

Wheat is just not ..a wild plant. It's a plant that we cultivate. It's a
plant we need to make better. We are increasing our population to very
large numbers and in that same space of land, we need to feed all these
people. So we need to engineer wheat to be a better plant. The only way
you can engineer something is if you understand.

**Narrator**

To advance that understanding, Jorge and his team at the University of
California-Davis are mapping the wheat genome. A genome is all the
genetic material of a living organism. It is the entire set of
hereditary instructions for building and running an organism, and,
passing life on to the next generation.

Sequencing of the human genome, a 13-year effort, was finally completed
in 2003. It is considered, by many, to be the greatest accomplishment of
modern science. The wheat genome that Jorge Dubcovsky is studying,
however, is five times as complex.

**Jorge Dubcovsky**

This is the first time we have the capacity to study all the genes
working together and talking together to each other to produce what we
see. So genomics will give us the possibility to understand how each of
these genes work, how they talk to each other, and how they make one of
the functions work. If we understand that better, there is a much bigger
chance that we can engineer that more efficiently than if we just
randomly mix pieces and hope for the best.

**Narrator**

One of Jorge's developments to date has been his work with DNA tags that
can be used in a process known as Marker-Assisted Selection. This allows
scientists to select more easily genes with desirable traits, especially
those highly affected by the environment.

**Jorge Dubcovsky**

Marker-Assisted Selection is to use the information from the DNA, that
difference in the DNA, to select directly for the gene that is producing
the result that you want to select.

Here we are doing something completely different. We are just using the
genes that are already present in wheat. We are making crosses that we
have been doing all of our lives as breeders. The only thing that we are
doing, is that we are using a better tool to see what we are selecting.
So we are not introducing a foreign piece of DNA any where. We are just
crossing something that is already in germ plasm of wheat\... and then
using those markers to put the pieces together in the way that we want
to assemble that plant.

**Jorge Dubcovsky**

Everybody likes to see wheat that is completely free of stripe-rust.

**Narrator**

Here at the annual field day held at the UC-Davis experimental plots,
wheat farmers from around the state gather to hear about recent
developments. One problem of high concern is a fungus called stripe
rust. It ruined \$400 million dollars of wheat in 2003. In response to
this, Jorge is using Marker-Assisted Selection to make new wheat types
that are resistant to stripe rust. This allows him to see results of his
experimentation quickly as compared to traditional breeding methods.

**Bonnie Fernandez/California Wheat Commission**

There are certain things that we need to have happen now. And we have
certain diseases, and certain qualities that we need addressed. So what
we find so good about George (Jorge) is the fact that we really have
faith in him - that we're going to get some of our immediate needs dealt
with. I think he's basically a scientist 24-7.

The US is not the center of the universe on wheat. We used to be one of
the few export players. Now, we are one of many. And in order to
maintain our competitive edge, we're going to have to be more aggressive
on addressing some of the immediate needs and that's where George is
going to help tremendously.

**Jorge Dubcovsky**

It's a great time to be a plant geneticist. I think this has been the
decades of biology. It's an amazing explosion and it's thrilling to be
part of that event.