Triticum aestivum. Triticum aestivum

Despite the economic importance of T. aestivum, genome sequencing has lagged behind in this crop plant because of the large and allohexaploid nature of its genome. EST and full length cDNA sequences provide essential information about the transcriptome. As an alternative to whole genome sequencing, the wheat scientific community decided to generate large scale ESTs from wheat with a long term goal of assigning gene function and their location on the chromosome. International Triticeae EST Cooperative (ITEC), established in 1998, maintains an international public repository for ESTs from Triticeae species that include sequences from wheat, barley, rye, and other related species.