Crop Type: Open field crop
Breeding system: Predominantly autogamous
Soft wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is among the most cultivated cereals and one of the most important staple foods in world. The derived flour is commonly processed to produce bread as well as other baked goods. This species originated and was initially domesticated in the Middle-East, in particular in the Fertile Crescent (Meyer and Purugganan, 2013). Currently (2017) its production is estimated around 771 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2019). Soft wheat is a global source of staple grain, and has contributed to the development of human civilisation (Huang et al., 2018). It is a predominantly autogamous crop.
References- FAOSTAT (2019). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAOSTAT database.
- Huang, M., Mheni, N., Brown-Guedira, G., McKendry, A., Griffey, C., Van Sanford, D., et al. (2018). Genetic analysis of heading date in winter and spring wheat. Euphytica 214, 1–18. doi:10.1007/s10681-018-2199-y.
- Meyer, R. S., and Purugganan, M. D. (2013). Evolution of crop species: genetics of domestication and diversification. Nat. Rev. Genet. 14, 840–52. doi:10.1038/nrg3605