Oats are a seemingly simple breakfast food, but inside each grain lies DNA that BYU professors are helping decode, work that could shape the future of farming, nutrition and food security.
A new global genomics study, co-led by researchers at BYU is giving scientists their clearest picture ever of the oat genome.
The project brought together teams across North America and Europe, to build the first detailed map of one of the world's most complex crops.
"Probably 50 percent of all calories come from a handful, maybe five different species, corn, soybean, wheat, rice. So a very small number of species provides a large fraction of those calories that the world uses. I'm much more interested in saying, ‘How do we amplify that?’” Jeff Maughan, BYU Plant and Wildlife Sciences professor said.
Maughan says oats once fell behind other crops, partly because they were thought of as horse feed. But today, scientists know they're packed with heart healthy benefits.
The challenge is that oats have one of the most complicated genomes in agriculture.
“We now have a map of the oat genome, which for oats is like, it's a map of the ocean, an ocean that's full of land mines, and when ships know where those mines are, they can navigate around them," Rick Jellen, BYU Plant and Wildlife Sciences professor said.
Those genetic land mines make breeding new oat varieties difficult, but researchers say this new map will help breeders avoid problem areas and select traits that boost yields, improve disease resistance, and make oats more drought tolerant.
"Understanding the genomics now from this work, we're starting to figure out where those bottlenecks are and helping breeders understand how to avoid them," Maughan said.
The team sequenced 30 oat varieties, but there are nearly 9 thousand more around the world. Scientists say decoding more will unlock even greater potential.
“We looked at 30 lines of oats, but there's 9 thousand. If we really want to understand how to improve oats, we need to have a bigger understanding across, not all 9 thousand, but we certainly need to get up to 1 thousand lines, or at least to 100 lines" Maughan said.
Researchers say the insights they gain from oats could even help improve breeding in other crops with similar genetic challenges.
“This study will help us to be able to understand how better to do breeding when we find a chromosomal rearrangement," Jellen said.
From the lab to the field, BYU’s work in oat genomics is showing how even the simplest foods can lead to breakthroughs in science and sustainability.