I’m back from blogging hiatus with a burning question: is anyone surprised that the wheat genome is more complex than that of humans?
This question is worth pondering in light of recent news that a team of scientists from renowned institutions around the world has identified nearly 100,000 genes in wheat DNA and they think they’ll have a handle on the whole thing in five to 10 years, if things go well. So it is, indeed, complex.
The comparatively puny human genome was mapped in 2003. It took a long time too. But the wheat genome is five times the size of the human genome.
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I’ll wager that most humans believe they are vastly superior to plants, but this wheat genome project could make us think otherwise. When you think about it, a cereal that keeps millions of humans alive each day, and indeed has been instrumental in the development of the human race, is logically superior to the beings that it feeds.
There are a few similarities between the two, however:
Wheat has germ. Humans have germs.
Wheat has stalks. Humans can be stalkers.
Wheat is easily made into dough. Humans easily become doughy if they don’t exercise.
Wheat can be damaged by disease and treated for illness. Humans, ditto.
Wheat has oblong-shaped kernels. Canada has oblong-shaped colonels.
OK, this lame comparison could extend into ever-more-ridiculous fields, so it’s best to stop now. I once wrote a column in the Producer about the life cycle of a wheat seed that extended into racy bits that included endosperm, but that’s best not repeated here.
Suffice at this point to celebrate the complexity of wheat, worthy subject of scientific teams and of authors who criticize its role in human physiology (Wheat Belly, by William Davis) and of this amazing plant’s role in human survival and development. Soon we may know all the secrets of its greatness.
