Israeli wheat and wild barley have undergone genetic changes in a short period of time of the last 28 years as a result of climate warming that may harm their ability to survive, according to research at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa
Israeli wheat and wild barley have undergone genetic changes in a short period of time of the last 28 years as a result of climate warming that may harm their ability to survive, in addition, all the plants tested advanced their flowering by about ten days during this period, these are the results of a new study conducted at the Institute of Evolution and published in the prestigious journal PNAS ( (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA.
"The global warming that is also happening in Israel is the only variable that could have caused these changes in the wild populations of wheat and barley all over Israel. The changes may harm the ability to improve food all over the world, because wild grains are an important basis for improving cultivated grains, which are a basic component of the global diet," said Prof. Avitar Nebo from the Institute of Evolution, who headed the study.
Wheat and barley are the nutritional basis of humans and animals all over the world and they evolved from wheat and wild barley ("the mother of wheat" and "the mother of barley") which originated in the Middle East. Therefore, the wild species are the main source of genetic improvement of the cultivated varieties for resistance to diseases and other environmental hazards. In the current study, which was led by Prof. Nebo together with Dr. Jung-B Fu from Canada, Dr. Avigdor Biles, Dr. Moti Tosi and Ms. Soad Khalifa from the Institute of Evolution, the researchers asked to examine whether wild wheat and wild barley underwent genetic and developmental changes over the decades The latter as a result of climate change, which can affect their future existence.
For this purpose, ten populations of wild wheat and ten populations of wild barley were selected from different climate zones from all over the country - from the hot and dry south to the rainy and cold north. These populations were tested for the first time in 1980 and again when the study began in the winter of 2009-2008, seeds from the 1980 and 2008 seasons were grown together in an experimental greenhouse.
The findings show that for a relatively short time of 28 years, all 20 populations advanced their flowering time by an average of about ten days. According to Prof. Nevo, the reason for this is that the plants have adapted themselves to the environment and they are actually trying to "precede" the hot days. However, if the flowering time shows an adaptation to global warming, the genetic changes found indicate a possible decrease in the adaptability of the wild plants: the genetic diversity of most plants in 2008 was significantly lower than the genetic diversity in 1980, a phenomenon that reduces the genetic adaptability of the plants. However, Prof. Nevo pointed out that plants in a small number of populations showed positive genetic changes to adapt to climatic warming and the decrease in precipitation - changes that could lead to a breakthrough in the ability to develop drought-resistant varieties.
As mentioned, according to the researcher, only global warming can explain such changes in populations from different climate zones from all over the country. This means that wheat and wild barley are under environmental pressure that may affect their chances of survival in the future.
"We cannot leave these concerns for the future because damage to wheat and wild barley is damage to the basic food product of humans all over the world. With the help of the large gene bank that we have at the Institute of Evolution, we are constantly trying to find ways to improve the cultured varieties, but the findings of the current research show that a much more massive action is needed to allow the wild populations to continue to thrive in the wild as well, to deal with the threats of global warming, concluded Prof. Nebo.
6 תגובות
Rather bacteria undergo evolution in the same single patient.
They have the ability to increase the rate of mutation creation when conditions are not good and they want to undergo rapid evolution.
Evolution is much faster than the man on the street imagines.
skeptic
It is known that bacteria, viruses and other creatures undergo mutations in periods of a few years and maybe much less.
So the issue of time is not relevant here.
It is certain that the scientists involved in such a complex field cannot be precise, but rather assess and anticipate,
However, to believe that there is a hidden power, which keeps, that there will never be a decrease in the grain crops, which are used as food for humanity, "there is no chance that these grains will stop...", this is already from the world of prophecy...
I did not address the question of whether there is global warming or not.
I referred to the disproven claim that global warming causes within decades a fundamental genetic change in the growth behavior of the three main grains (wheat, barley, oats). This is in complete contrast to what is known about natural selection (which is a process in which fundamental genetic changes are on a time scale of tens of thousands of years).
Also, these three grains are common all over the world with huge climate differences of the growing places. Therefore, even if there are dramatic climate changes, there is no way that these grains will stop providing the amount of food they provide today. In the worst case there will be a change of varieties in different growing places (this is a regular practice in agriculture).
The unfounded intimidation, regarding these three grains, gives a bad name to the *seriousness* of the claims of the "prophets of global warming".
Skeptic, if there is no global warming then why did they establish a unit to investigate its consequences? Is there nothing for the Ministry of Science and the LTTE to do except research something that doesn't exist?
Or it is better to deny so as not to bear the consequences and that is what you and your fellow Republicans (and their Israeli counterparts) are doing.
paradox
Creationists defend science in their claim (contrary to the opinion of most scientists),
that science and all that accompanies it, can never cause the extinction of the human race.
Just hysteria and not related to global warming. The link to global warming is speculative.
Since when do fundamental natural selection genetic changes develop within decades? Rapid changes are only possible in artificial selection.
The plants adapt to weather changes (for example there are seasonal plants whose growth starts only when there are minimal conditions for growth). It is possible that changes in the growth time of these grains are related to adaptation and not to fundamental genetic changes.
There is no chance that the future growth potential of these grains will be compromised.
Cereals that grow all over the world in very different climatic conditions, these species are very flexible regarding climatic conditions (this is why they served as the cradle of agriculture in Eurasia). Also, it is possible to replace varieties with new varieties (this is what is done all the time in agriculture).