Looking Back to Move Forward: How Ancient Wheat Could Help Build Climate-Ready Crops

Researchers at NIAB have successfully recreated a wheat cross that first occurred more than 10,000 years ago, unlocking valuable genetic traits that could help develop the next generation of resilient wheat varieties.

The breakthrough highlights the growing importance of plant breeding and genetic diversity in securing the future of arable farming, demonstrating how ancient genetics could provide solutions to some of agriculture's most modern challenges.

Recreating wheat's ancient origins

Modern bread wheat has a remarkable history. Scientists believe it originated thousands of years ago through the natural cross-pollination of Emmer wheat with a wild grass species known as wild goat grass. This single event laid the foundations for virtually every bread wheat variety grown around the world today.

According to Dr Phil Howell, crop domestication has inevitably narrowed the genetic diversity available to plant breeders. "Crop breeding is like a funnel," he explains. Over thousands of years, breeders have selected crops with desirable characteristics such as higher yields, improved quality and easier harvesting. While these advances have transformed agricultural productivity, they have also reduced the range of genetic traits available within modern wheat.

This narrowing of diversity has consequences. As pathogens evolve and environmental conditions become more unpredictable, crops with limited genetic variation can become increasingly vulnerable to disease outbreaks and climatic stress.

Unlocking lost genetic traits

To address this challenge, NIAB scientists have recreated the original ancient wheat cross in the laboratory and glasshouse using tissue culture techniques. By effectively rewinding wheat's genetic history, researchers have been able to recover traits that were lost during thousands of years of domestication and breeding.

The result is a collection of what researchers describe as "rewilded wheats", plants that combine the genetics of ancient ancestors with opportunities for modern breeding programmes. Although these lines are not intended for commercial cultivation, they provide breeders with access to a much broader pool of useful characteristics than has been available previously.

Building stronger disease resistance

One of the most exciting discoveries so far has been improved resistance to septoria, one of the UK's most economically damaging wheat diseases. Trials carried out in the southwest of England, where septoria pressure is particularly high, have shown that several of the rewilded wheat lines exhibit little or no disease infection.

For growers, this represents a glimpse of what future wheat breeding could achieve. Stronger natural disease resistance has the potential to reduce reliance on crop protection products, improve resilience and support more sustainable production systems.

The research also demonstrates the value of what scientists refer to as "pre-breeding", identifying valuable traits from wild relatives before introducing them into commercial breeding programmes.

While these ancient wheat lines still contain many undesirable characteristics and are not suitable for direct cultivation, they provide invaluable parent material that commercial breeders can use to develop future varieties combining resilience with the yield, quality and agronomic performance expected by today's farmers.

As agriculture continues to respond to climate change, evolving pest and disease pressures and the need to produce more from fewer inputs, expanding the genetic toolbox available to breeders will become increasingly important. Innovation in arable farming is no longer confined to machinery and digital technology. Advances in genetics, crop science and plant breeding are playing an equally critical role in building resilient farming systems capable of meeting future food security challenges.

Join the conversation at CropTec 2026

These are exactly the types of conversations that will take centre stage at CropTec 2026. Taking place on 20–21 January 2026 at the NEC Birmingham, CropTec will bring together leading scientists, breeders, agronomists and growers to explore the technologies and innovations shaping the future of crop production.

From plant genetics and disease resistance to precision agriculture, regenerative farming and emerging technologies, CropTec provides arable farmers with practical insight into the developments that will influence tomorrow's farming decisions.

Register your interest today!