100 years have passed, but the future of beer is guaranteed

It is assumed that barley began to cultivate 10,000 years ago. Their crops stretched from the Tigris and Euphrates Valley to North Africa. After that, it began to spread and today it is cultivated almost all over the world. From Asia and Egypt to cold places like Norway and the Andes. It has adapted to numerous places and climates. But how does it do it? Understanding their mechanisms can be useful to get the most out of them as the process progresses. climate change. This would mean saving not only barley, but also its two most popular products: beer and whiskey.

Therefore, a group of scientists from University of California Riverside He has been studying for several years. barley genes. It is known that the plant is able to adapt its flowering to the climate. Ideally, it should bloom when it is no longer too cold, but before the dry season begins, since in this case the seeds will not have enough water to germinate. flowering period It is framed by a very small window, which, according to the observations of these scientists, can be moved if necessary. There must be genes that speed up or delay flowering in order to adapt to the climate.

The problem is that it is difficult to learn. It can only be cultivated. one generation of barley per yearso it would take a long time to collect enough genetic samples to study their adaptation to change. When faced with such complex situations, sometimes you have to get creative, and that’s what these researchers did. They remembered the existence of an experiment conducted in 1929for which data on many genetic varieties of barley had been recorded over several years. They had stumbled upon the perfect time machine for analyzing changes over a century. Beer is safe thanks to an experiment conducted during Prohibition. Isn’t that ironic?

100 years to save beer

The study these scientists chose is known as Barley Composite Cross II and is considered one of the oldest biological experiments in the world. It began in 1929, when climate change was not yet considered a problem.

The aim of its authors was simply to discover new varieties of barley. Well suited for the California marketOver the decades, many breeders competed with each other for thousands of genetically different varieties of barley. The barley that grew best in California’s hot, dry climate was selected and eventually became the most common.

The data from this experiment is available for review. In fact, it has been used in many studies since then. For example, a study was published in 1982 that analyzed genetic changes in burn resistance over 45 generations. A year later, in 1983, it was studied how natural selection about crossing different varieties of barley. Why not use all this to study climate adaptation?

Much more data to study about barley

Thanks to this experiment, scientists from the University of California were able to see how in just 58 seasons 15,000 individual plants genetically different from one line plants that dominated 60% of the population. Moreover, 75% had no human selection.

As explained in a statement by the study’s lead author, Dan KoenigThey were surprised by the large number of changes that had occurred in a relatively short period of time. “Natural selection had completely altered genetic diversity across the genome.” just in a person’s life“.

What is all this for?

In fact, it seems that barley will not have much trouble adapting to climate change. However, this research may help to understand which varieties of barley are best adapted. This way, priority will be given to its cultivation, especially in areas most affected by global warming. This, in turn, will facilitate further growth of the raw material for beer.

But that’s not all. The barley genome is very similar to that of other cereals, such as corn, rice or wheat. Therefore, given how quickly barley adapts, we can determine which genes are involved and use genetic engineering to pass this ability on to other cereals.

It’s fine to continue drinking beer, but it would be nice to have more essential foods like bread or rice. All of this will be part of a follow-up study published in ScienceWe’re off to a good start at the moment.

The future of beer seems very promising. Although perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we will have enough water to brew it. And it would certainly be better to fight climate change rather than just make sure we have beer to cry on as it slowly destroys our planet.