Question: How do you modify wheat?

Nikolai Adamski answered on 10 Mar 2015:

Well, there are different ways of modifying wheat (or any plant). Traditionally plants have been modified to suit our needs by breeding: You take a variety that has an interesting trait (bigger grains, grows faster, etc.) and cross it to the wheat variety you have been using so far hoping that you can transfer the interesting trait to your favourite wheat variety.
This process is still being used, but now we have more precise tools to do it. We now understand that genes are causing plants of the same species to look different: A particular gene can have different versions in different wheat varieties: We call that genetic variation. Our new scientific tools allow us to capture this variation and use it to improve wheat through targeted crossing.
We also induce variation, i.e. we artificially change genes and try to understand the effect that this has on the plant (this happens only in our research facilities, so don’t worry). By understanding how different versions of genes affect a plant and how several different genes work together, we can start to modify plants quite precisely. As I’ve mentioned, this has been done before using breeding, but that was much less precise and took a much longer time.
I hope that answers your question. Let me know if not.
cheers
nikolai