Researchers have identified the genes that give wheat the ability to cross climates, a discovery that could aid humanity’s ancient effort to make the world’s most popular grain more productive, faster to mature and able to survive more extreme conditions. A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, has isolated and cloned the second of two genes that control vernalization — the plant’s ability to flower only after exposure to a cold winter. That ability has allowed the plant to grow some in the fall but wait until after winter before flowering.
