The International team of scientists cracks genetic code of wheat

For the first time, the International team of scientists including 18 from India cracked the genetic code of wheat, the world’s most widely cultivated crop. The information generated will help to identify genes controlling complex agronomic traits such as yield, grain quality, resistance to diseases and pests, as well as tolerance to drought, heat, water logging and salinity. The research, which is published in Journal ‘Science’, stated that the DNA sequence of bread wheat has been ordered and it represents the highest quality genome sequence generated to date. The reference genome covers 94% (14.5 Gb) of the entire wheat genome. The bread wheat has a complex hexaploid genome which is 40 times larger than that of the rice genome and 5 times larger than the human genome. The availability of high quality reference genome would accelerate the breeding of climate-resilient wheat varieties to feed the ever-increasing world population and help address global food security in the decades to come.