India to help crack the wheat genome

India has joined 15 other countries in to crack the wheat genome within the next three years.

Indian scientists are working with others from the US, the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Norway, Israel, Turkey, Russia, China, Japan, Australia and Argentina, reported The Times of India.

The department of biotechnology (DBT) has sanctioned about Rs 34 crore for over four years to three institutes – Punjab Agriculture University, ICAR and Delhi University – for the project.

Prof Nagendra Kumar Singh from ICAR’s National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology in New Delhi said: “The project is likely to be completed in five years. But, we will crack the code within three years.”

Wheat has 21 chromosomes of which one will be decoded by the 21 Indian scientists. The wheat genome is 42 times bigger than rice genome.