Scientific Name	Triticum aestivum
Common Name	Canadian hard winter wheat, common wheat, wheat; Triticum aestivum subsp. aestivum; Triticum vulgare;
Taxonomy ID	4565
Lineage	cellular organisms > Viridiplantae > Streptophyta > Streptophytina > Embryophyta > Tracheophyta > Euphyllophyta > Spermatophyta > Magnoliophyta > Mesangiospermae > Liliopsida > Petrosaviidae > commelinids > Poales > Poaceae > BOP clade > Pooideae > Triticodae > Triticeae > Triticinae > Triticum
External Links	NCBI;
Representative Assembly	ASM188920v1	GCA_001889205.1	DNA

Description:

Wheat is an important grain crop of the family Gramineae (Poaceae) and the genus Triticum. Compared to other cereals, wheat contains a high amount of gluten, the protein that provides the elasticity necessary for excellent bread making. Bread wheat has a large genome and its hexaploid nature has delayed the sequencing of its genome. To understand the genome, in 1989, the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) was established to develop RFLP maps for members of Triticeae, especially wheat and barley and make them publicly available. In 1998 the International Triticeae EST Cooperative (ITEC) was established to create a public database of ESTs in order to study the wheat functional genomics. This led to the establishment of NSF funded Wheat Genome Project in US to generate large scale wheat ESTs and to map all these genes to chromosomes. BBSRC funded Gene Function Initiative (GFI) project in UK has also developed resources for investigating cereal gene function. Triticum aestivum has a genome size of about 16000 Mb with 21 chromosomes. It is an allohexaploid composed of three subgenomes, A, B, and D. The chromosomes of Triticum aestivum can be separated by flow-sorting. This has enabled development of chromosome-specific BAC libraries for the 'Chinese Spring' cultivar as the first step to determine the sequence of the wheat genome. IWGSC is the umbrella organization organizing this effort.