Transforming Amber Waves of Grain: New Genome Assembly for 'Fielder' Wheat Cultivar
Published:17 Aug.2021 Source:Okayama University
Wheat is a staple in the diets of numerous cultures. Increasing wheat production efficiency would help feed more people and reduce associated agricultural costs. Genetic engineering has the potential to generate better wheat cultivars with characteristics we desire, but unfortunately, wheat is also one of the hardest crops to genetically modify.
This is because wheat is resistant to "transformation," the process of introducing new genes into cells so that they are incorporated into the genome and passed down to the next generation, even with the development of a successful plant transformation system that uses Agrobacterium tumefaciens.