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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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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
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