Wresting Wheat's Genetic Secrets.

This article discusses a study on secrets about bread-quality genes--and other genes--from the genetic makeup of wheat. Conducted by scientists from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the study found that unraveling the makeup of wheat's gene pool poses a formidable challenge. Olin D. Anderson, a plant geneticist at the ARS, explained that wheat is a complex union of three ancestral grass genomes that together make the wheat genome 10 times the size of the human genome. The scientists are comparing and contrasting genetic material of Chinese Spring wheat with that of several other wheat plants.