The wheat field that could change the world

This work demonstrates for the first time that by transferring a chromosome segment from a wild-wheat (that is responsible for coding antibiotics), we can double antibiotics production from root systems of cultivated wheats. This makes it possible to develop BNI-enhanced next-generation wheat cultivars that can reduce nitrogen leaking and limit nitrous oxide emissions from wheat farming. This work was selected for the Cozzrelli Prize for 2021 by the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

This work makes a case for how improving soil ammonium availability by inhibiting soil nitrifier activity can have a multitude of benefits in reducing nitrogen leakage and dramatically improve agricultural productivity.

This work proposes that exploiting BNI-function in crop root systems can be an effective genetic mitigation strategy to curb GHG emissions from agriculture.

This work is a comprehensive review on how plant root systems can suppress soil-nitrifier activity and soil nitrate formation in agriculture.

This work discusses the benefits of shifting crop nitrogen-nutrition from ‘Nitrate-Centric’ (at present) to ‘Ammonium-Centric’ and how genetic exploitation of BNI-function in plant root systems can facilitate such a shift.

This work discovers for the first time plant-produced nitrification inhibitors (released from root systems) of a tropical pasture grass, Brachiaria humidicola, and demonstrates its impact on reducing nitrogen leakage and nitrous oxide emissions from fields.

This work discovers that a wild-wheat has ability to produce large amounts of nitrification inhibitors from root systems and identifies the chromosome that is responsible for coding these antibiotic production.