On Jul. 17, 2014, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) a draft sequence of the bread wheat genome. The chromosome-based draft provided new insight into the structure, organization, and evolution of the large, complex genome of the world’s most widely grown cereal crop.

The crop that feeds 30% of the human population and provides 20% of its calories was among the most difficult to sequence. The modern wheat genome is the product of multiple rounds of hybridization among different species. As a result, the genome now consists of three nearly identical ‘subgenomes’, each of which contains seven pairs of chromosomes. The study was published in the international journal Science.