Despite their economic importance and growing demand, concerns are emerging around wheat-based foods and human health. Most wheat-based foods are made from refined white flour...

In our recent Communications Biology article, we reported the first occurrence of wheat stem rust in the UK in nearly six decades. An increased incidence of wheat stem rust in...

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a rapid and cost-effective reverse genetic technology that can be used to assess gene function in wheat. This chapter contains a detailed...

The following protocol describes the genetic transformation of wheat using the BioRad PDS/1000-He particle delivery system. Immature embryos are isolated 12–16 days...

The history of wheat domestication and use is closely linked to the efforts of humans to protect themselves from hunger and gain control over their food supply. Now grown...

The dietary intake of fermentable oligo-, di- and monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAPs) can promote gut health, but also trigger gastrointestinal disorders. Wheat as a staple...

Wheat accounts for about 20% to over 50% of the total calorie intake of food in regions where it is grown. However, there is a clear perception that disorders related to the...

Leaf rust and stripe rust are among the most damaging diseases of wheat worldwide. Wheat cultivation based on limited number of rust resistance genes deployed over vast areas...

Acrylamide is a food-processing contaminant formed from free asparagine and reducing sugars during high-temperature cooking and processing. It is a Group 2A carcinogen, and...

Genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas, have recently become valuable tools for plant reverse genetics as well as crop improvement, including enhancement of disease...

Powdery mildew is a severe disease in wheat. In barley, durable resistance exists, based on non-functionality of the Mlo gene. As a model to analyse the effects of mutagenesis...

One of the most important tools to identify and validate rust resistance gene function is by producing loss-of-function mutants. Mutants can be produced using irradiation,...

Genetic resistance is the most economic and environmentally sustainable approach for crop disease protection. Disease resistance (R) genes from wild relatives are a valuable...

The growing human population and a changing environment have raised significant concern for global food security, with the current improvement rate of several important crops...

The continued expansion of the world population and the likely onset of climate change combine to form a major crop breeding challenge. Genetic advances in most crop species to...

A lack of genetic diversity between wheat breeding lines has been recognized as a significant block to future yield increases. Wheat breeding and prebreeding strategies are...

MutChromSeq is an approach for isolation of genes and DNA sequences controlling gene expression in plants with complex and polyploid genomes. It involves a lossless complexity...

MutRenSeq is a method to clone disease resistance (R) genes in plants. Tips and detailed experimental protocols for the pipeline, including the complexity reduction by R gene...

Traditionally, diagnostic tools for plant pathogens were limited to the analysis of purified pathogen isolates subjected to phenotypic characterization and/or PCR-based...

DNA is widely used in plant genetic and molecular biology studies. In this chapter, we describe how to extract DNA from wheat tissues. The tissue samples are ground to disrupt...