Editing Wheat (section)

=== To create hybrid vigor ===

Because wheat self-pollinates, creating [[hybrid seed]] to provide the possible benefits of [[heterosis]], hybrid vigor (as in the familiar F1 hybrids of maize), is extremely labor-intensive; the high cost of hybrid wheat seed relative to its moderate benefits have kept farmers from adopting them widely<ref>Mike Abram for Farmers' Weekly. 17 May 2011. [http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/17/05/2011/126829/hybrid-wheat-to-make-a-return.htm Hybrid wheat to make a return]</ref><ref>Bill Spiegel for agriculture.com 11 March 2013 [http://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/technology/hybrid-wheats-comeback_147-ar30398 Hybrid wheat's comeback]</ref> despite nearly 90 years of effort.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hybridwheat.net/anglais/growing-hybrid-wheat-in-europe/history-of-hybrid-wheat/history-of-hybrid-wheat-627.aspx|title=The Hybrid wheat website|date=18 December 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218051925/http://www.hybridwheat.net/anglais/growing-hybrid-wheat-in-europe/history-of-hybrid-wheat/history-of-hybrid-wheat-627.aspx|archive-date=18 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="Bajaj-1990">Bajaj, Y.P.S. (1990) ''Wheat''. [[Springer Science+Business Media]]. pp. 161–163. {{ISBN|3-540-51809-6}}.</ref> Commercial hybrid wheat seed has been produced using chemical hybridizing agents, [[Plant hormone|plant growth regulators]] that selectively interfere with pollen development, or naturally occurring [[cytoplasmic male sterility]] systems. Hybrid wheat has been a limited commercial success in Europe (particularly France), the United States and South Africa.<ref>Basra, Amarjit S. (1999) ''Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops''. Haworth Press. pp. 81–82. {{ISBN|1-56022-876-8}}.</ref>

Synthetic hexaploids made by crossing the wild goatgrass wheat ancestor ''[[Aegilops tauschii]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aberkane |first1=Hafid |last2=Payne |first2=Thomas |last3=Kishi |first3=Masahiro |last4=Smale |first4=Melinda |last5=Amri|first5=Ahmed |last6=Jamora |first6=Nelissa |date=1 October 2020 |title=Transferring diversity of goat grass to farmers' fields through the development of synthetic hexaploid wheat |journal=[[Food Security (journal)|Food Security]] |volume=12|issue=5 |pages=1017–1033 |doi=10.1007/s12571-020-01051-w |s2cid=219730099 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and other ''[[Aegilops]]'',<ref name="Kishii-2019">{{cite journal |last=Kishii |first=Masahiro |title=An Update of Recent Use of ''Aegilops'' Species in Wheat Breeding |journal=[[Frontiers in Plant Science]] |publisher=[[Frontiers Media]] SA |volume=10 |date=9 May 2019 |page=585 |doi=10.3389/fpls.2019.00585 |pmid=31143197 |pmc=6521781 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and various durum wheats are now being deployed, and these increase the genetic diversity of cultivated wheats.<ref>(12 May 2013) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22498274 Cambridge-based scientists develop 'superwheat'] BBC News UK, Retrieved 25 May 2013</ref><ref>[http://www.k-state.edu/wgrc/Germplasm/synthetics.html Synthetic hexaploids] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128114349/http://www.k-state.edu/wgrc/Germplasm/synthetics.html |date=28 November 2011 }}</ref><ref>(2013) [http://www.niab.com/uploads/files/NIAB_Synthetic_Hexaploid_Wheat.pdf Synthetic hexaploid wheat] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416183627/http://www.niab.com/uploads/files/NIAB_Synthetic_Hexaploid_Wheat.pdf |date=16 April 2014 }} UK [[National Institute of Agricultural Botany]], Retrieved 25 May 2013</ref>