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News Release 12-212

International Team Generates Major Breakthrough in Deciphering Bread Wheat's Genetic Code

National Science Foundation-funded researchers help reveal genes in exceptionally complex genome

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Close up photo of wheat plants ready for harvest.

The first analysis of the bread wheat genome involved identifying essentially all 94,000-96,000 wheat genes and mapping their relationships to other known grass genes such as those from rice and barley.

Credit: Thinkstock

 

Photo of winter wheat field.

Archeological and genetic evidence points to the South Caspian Basin near Iran and Azerbaijan as the origin of bread wheat cultivation about 8,000 years ago. This is a photo of winter wheat.

Credit: Michael Thompson, USDA