Genetically modified wheat

Genetically modified wheat is wheat that has been genetically engineered by the direct manipulation of its genome using biotechnology. As of 2020, no GM wheat is grown commercially, although many field tests have been conducted, with one wheat variety, Bioceres HB4 Wheat, obtaining regulatory approval from the Argentinean government. Wheat is a natural hybrid derived from interspecies breeding. It is theorized that wheat's ancestors (Triticum monococcum, Aegilops speltoides, and Aegilops tauschii, all diploid grasses) hybridized naturally over millennia somewhere in West Asia, to create natural polyploid hybrids, the best known of which are common wheat and durum wheat. Wheat (Triticum spp.) is an important domesticated grass used worldwide for food. Its evolution has been influenced by human intervention since the dawn of agriculture. Interspecies transfer of genes continued to occur in farmers fields during the shift from the Paleolithic diet to the diet adopted by humans following the Neolithic Revolution, or first green revolution. During the transition from a hunter-gatherer social structure to more agrarian societies, humans began to cultivate wheat and further transform it for their needs. Thus, the social and cultural roots of humans and the development of wheat have intertwined since before recorded history. This process resulted in various wheat species that are grown for specific purposes and climates. In 1873 Wilson cross-pollinated rye and wheat to create triticale. Further transformations using cytogenic hybridization techniques enabled Norman Borlaug, father of the second Green Revolution, to develop wheat species (the semidwarf varieties) that would grow in harsh environments. Recombinant DNA techniques were developed in the 1980s, work began on creating the first transgenic wheat, coincident with the third Green Revolution. Of the three most important cereals in the world (corn, rice and wheat), wheat was the last to be transformed by transgenic, biolistic methods in 1992, and by Agrobacterium methods in 1997.