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Wheat evolution

The story of wheat and its cousins

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Sequences of almost 800 wheat genomes have retraced the history of wheat: when and where it was domesticated, how cultivation spread from its Middle Eastern centre of origin and how the genome adapted to selective pressures in new agricultural habitats, not least thanks to its ability to take up genes from wild cousins.

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Fig. 1: Progenitors and dispersal routes of bread wheat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Seeland, Germany

    Jia-Wu Feng & Martin Mascher

  2. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Martin Mascher

Authors
  1. Jia-Wu Feng
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  2. Martin Mascher
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Correspondence to Martin Mascher.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Feng, JW., Mascher, M. The story of wheat and its cousins. Nat. Plants 9, 377–378 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01365-5

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