MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas State University researchers have helped create a genetic blueprint for many of the traits found in the most common type of wheat.
Bikram Gill and Sunish Sehgal were part of an international collaboration that sequenced most of the genes of common wheat, also known as bread wheat. Gill is the director of Kansas State's Wheat Genetics Resource Center, and Sehgal is a research associate in plant pathology.
Their study appears in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal Nature.
Kansas State says researchers anticipate using the information to improve wheat genetically. The goal is to help growers meet the increasing demand for food and feed.
The research also could help scientists learn more about a chromosomal driving force in plant genome evolution.