00:00These plants contain hidden secrets about wheat.
00:06Grown in controlled conditions here at the John Innes Research Centre,
00:10wild grass is helping an international group of scientists develop a different type of wheat.
00:16So here we've got lots of different varieties of this wild grass species.
00:20I'm really interested in the starch in these grains,
00:22trying to find novel diversity in this wild grass, which we don't see in modern wheat.
00:28We're interested in trying to transfer this into modern wheat
00:31to create starch which is more nutritious or useful for different industries, such as bread making.
00:36Scientists extracted DNA from these leaves and were excited to discover their potential.
00:42So it might seem very different to wheat, but it's actually almost like a grandparent of wheat,
00:47so it was really important in the evolution of modern wheat,
00:50which we're growing and eating in our daily lives.
00:53The grasses contain a larger type of starch, which could have health benefits.
00:58And this could potentially be really helpful nutritionally for our guts,
01:01because it might digest slightly slower and release less glucose into the bloodstream.
01:05So it could be really good for diseases such as diabetes.
01:09Extensive studies by the group revealed today's wheat is essentially a hybrid of three types of wild grasses.
01:16Originating in the Middle East, it's only existed for around 8,000 years.
01:22But in that time, it's become a huge part of our diets.
01:26It's thought around a fifth of the calories we consume globally come from wheat.
01:31But that modern crop has lost much of its diversity over the generations,
01:35which is why researchers here want to put that diversity back in to a more nutritious and climate-resistant crop.
01:43Scientists leading the research say adapting wheat production to climate change is key to future food security.
01:50The important aspect here is we need to grow more wheat in the future.
01:54The estimates are that by 2050, we need to produce up to 30 to 50 percent more wheat than what we produce today to meet global demands.
02:02Chinese scientists are also making a vital contribution to this international project.
02:07We have a much better view of the genetics,
02:11and we also have a better understanding of what the people in the other parts of the world are using for improving their varieties.
02:21Back at the John Innes Research Centre, a giant gene bank.
02:25This library of seeds from around the globe, carefully sorted and cooled.
02:30These drawers holding 30,000 wheat samples.
02:34We enable this research because the essence of the study is understanding genomic diversity, and we hold the diversity.
02:42So in order to unlock the diversity, you first need to define it, to conserve it.
02:47And so the genetic diversity discovered in these seeds could one day become part of the wheat we grow and the bread we eat,
02:56creating a more sustainable crop.
02:59Kitty Logan, CTTN, Norwich.
