Wheat Research Benefits by DuPont’s Sharing of Wheat Genome Data

In a move that DuPont says will significantly boost research and enhance nutritional applications of wheat and other major cereal crops, the company recently announced that it is making proprietary wheat genome data available to public and private researchers without restriction.

DuPont’s contribution—consisting of more than 200,000 lines of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), or portions of a gene which can be used to locate an entire gene—more than doubles the amount of wheat genome information currently available to researchers through GenBank, a public database of DNA information held by the National Institutes of Health.

The contribution will increase the amount of wheat genetic information available to scientists across the globe. As well, a greater knowledge about the wheat genome will help advance the research of all cereal crops that feed a bulk of the people in the developing world.

“Making this data available to the public is consistent with the long tradition of DuPont of advancing science and crop genetics research worldwide,” said Jim Miller. “We are confident this data will strengthen the collaborative efforts among crop scientists and lead to the development of new and improved wheat varieties.”

Jim Miller, vice president of DuPont Crop Genetics Research & Development, said that sharing this data with researchers worldwide will enhance the overall understanding of one of agriculture’s most complex genomes. “The wheat genome is significantly larger and more complex than most crops,” said Miller. “Making this data available, without restrictions, will bolster many ongoing research efforts and provide a foundation for the development of advanced varieties that benefit growers, breeders and consumers.”

DuPont’s subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., donated its spring wheat germ-plasm to North Dakota State University in 1990, when it stopped breeding hard red spring and hard red winter wheat varieties, in large part because of brownbagging that gave little incentive to develop new private varieties. The company continues to develop soft red winter and soft white winter varieties, however, and also develops wheat varieties for production in Europe.

As the most widely consumed crop in the world, wheat holds the key to vast and innovative nutritional applications in feeding a growing world population. Enhanced by this new research, wheat’s unique traits also will help produce better end-use characteristics for new generations of wheat products.

“People across the globe, especially in developing countries, rely on wheat as an essential part of their diet more than any other cereal crop,” according to Olin Anderson, research leader with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, and coordinator of wheat and barley ESTs for the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative. “Better understanding of the wheat genome will greatly benefit ongoing research efforts and, ultimately, improve the nutritional value of such a vital component of the world’s food supply. The DuPont EST donation is a valuable addition to GenBank because these specific ESTs were not previously represented.”

Big agricultural companies are often criticized for their greed (sometimes deservedly so) but critics seldom give credit when companies make nonprofit contributions. Du-pont should be applauded for its donation of wheat research information.  The necessity for a private company to protect its research investment is understood, and any time the private sector shares its research investment for the good of public research and for the benefit of society is to be commended. 

Association Perspectives represents the views of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, Montana Grain Growers Association, and South Dakota Wheat Inc.