Wheat and barley have sustained human civilisation for more than 10,000 years, adapting to new environments as agriculture spread across continents.

Now, researchers have uncovered genetic similarities between these ancient crops that could help develop varieties better equipped to withstand drought and other environmental challenges.

Reconstructing Ancient Plant Genomes

Researchers from INRAE, the University of Clermont Auvergne and CNRS compared the genomes of 84 modern flowering plant species, reconstructing 10 ancestral genomes dating back more than 200 million years.

These reconstructed genomes, known as paleogenomes, reveal how genetic material was organised in ancient plants and which genes have remained conserved throughout evolution.

The scientists identified genes that retain similar biological functions across different species. Such similarities could help researchers understand important agricultural traits, including drought tolerance, flowering time and productivity.

Their findings were published in Molecular Plant in September 2026, building on related research published in Nature Plants in November 2025.

Ten Thousand Years Of Adaptation

Wheat and barley were particularly valuable for this research because both were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent more than 10,000 years ago. As farming expanded, these cereals encountered changing temperatures, rainfall patterns and growing conditions.

The researchers compared 1,420 modern wheat and barley varieties representing genetic diversity from around the world, alongside ancient wheat remains approximately 5,000 years old.

Their analysis identified roughly 100 genetic variants highlighted for their potential importance in adaptation. It also revealed evidence of convergent selection, in which different crops develop or retain similar genetic characteristics under comparable environmental pressures.

In wheat, the team confirmed the involvement of three genes previously characterised in other plant species. Two influence yield and flowering time, while the third participates in epigenetic regulation, which affects gene activity without changing the underlying DNA sequence.

Shared Genes And Climate Resilience

One important discovery was that wheat and barley show overlapping genetic responses despite their distinct evolutionary histories.

The researchers identified signs of selection associated with agricultural productivity and adaptation to environmental stress. However, they also found genetic differences between populations from different geographical regions.

These findings suggest that comparing related crops could reveal useful genetic characteristics that might otherwise remain overlooked.

Jérôme Salse, research director at INRAE, explained that examining genetic changes during domestication can help identify variants repeatedly selected in environments facing similar climatic constraints. Such knowledge could support breeding programmes responding to climate change.

New Tools For Crop Breeding

The research teams also developed two freely accessible tools to help scientists investigate plant evolution. Ancestral Genome Reconstruction, or AGR, allows researchers to compare modern genomes and reconstruct ancestral genetic structures.

OrthoViewer provides information about conserved genes across 84 agriculturally important plant species. Its database includes 1,142 genes whose biological functions and agricultural relevance have already been described in scientific literature.

Together, these resources could help breeders identify promising genetic variants and transfer knowledge gained from one crop into research on another.

What Comes Next

The researchers are extending their investigations to other major cereals, including rice, maize and sorghum. Although the findings do not immediately produce drought-resistant varieties, they offer potential genetic targets for future breeding. Additional experiments will be needed to establish how individual variants affect crop performance under real agricultural conditions.

By combining ancient evolutionary history with modern genetic analysis, scientists are gaining new ways to investigate characteristics that could make agriculture more resilient in a changing climate.