Wheat Quits Wandering:Stars align to put this row crop back in the spotlight

摘要

For the past 30 years or so, the U.S. wheat yield trend line has kept a slow-but-steady average annual gain of less than Vi bu. per acre. Although research traditionally favors corn and soybean advancements at the expense of wheat that might be aboutto change.In 2012, an international team of scientists finished an initial sequencing of the wheat genome, allowing researchers to identify, categorize and record individual genes and gene-cluster locations. Although it's considered a "rough map" so far, it is loaded with thousands of new points of interest for future studies.Revitalized interest in wheat research and breeding began before 2012, adds Allan Fritz, professor of wheat breeding at Kansas State University.