some of the media. On 29 November 2012, an essentially complete gene set of bread wheat was published. Random shotgun libraries of total DNA and cDNA from the T. aestivum cv. Chinese Spring (CS42) were sequenced in Roche 454 pyrosequencer using GS FLX Titanium and GS FLX+ platforms to generate 85 Gb of sequence (220 million reads) and identified between 94,000 and 96,000 genes. The implications of the research in cereal genetics and breeding includes the examination of genome variation, analysis of population genetics and evolutionary biology, and further studying epigenetic modifications. In 2018 an even more complete Chinese Spring genome was released by a different team. Then in 2020 some of the same researchers produced 15 genome sequences from various locations and varieties around the world – the most complete and detailed so far – along with examples of their own use of the sequences to localize particular insect and disease resistance factors. The team expects these sequences will be useful in future cultivar breeding. is controlled by R genes which are highly race-specific. Genetic engineering CRISPR/Cas9 For decades the primary genetic modification technique has been non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). However, since its introduction, the / tool has been extensively adopted, for example: To intentionally damage three homologs of TaNP1 (a glucose-methanol-choline oxidoreductase gene) to produce a novel male sterility trait, by Li et al. 2020 Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici resistance has been produced by Shan et al. 2013 and Wang et al. 2014 by editing one of the mildew resistance locus o genes (more specifically one of the Triticum aestivum MLO (TaMLO) genes) Triticum aestivum EDR1 (TaEDR1) (the EDR1 gene, which inhibits Bmt resistance) has been knocked out by Zhang et al. 2017 to improve that resistance Triticum aestivum HRC (TaHRC) has been disabled by Su et al. 2019 thus producing Gibberella zeae resistance. Triticum aestivum Ms1 (TaMs1) has been knocked out by Okada et al. 2019 to produce another novel male sterility and Triticum aestivum acetolactate synthase (TaALS) and Triticum aestivum acetyl-CoA-carboxylase (TaACC) were subjected to base changes by Zhang et al. 2019 (in two publications) to confer herbicide resistance to ALS inhibitors and ACCase inhibitors respectively these examples illustrate the rapid deployment and results that CRISPR/Cas9 has shown in wheat disease resistance improvement. Varieties There are around 20 wheat varieties of 7 species grown throughout the world. In Canada different varieties are blended prior to sale.