Researchers at the John Innes Centre leveraged recent advances in mapping of bread wheat's complex genome to make the discovery. The Osbourn and Uauy groups collaborated to generate data that led to the discovery of several sets of genes in wheat that are switched on when the plant is attacked by disease-causing microbes.
These genes are found in six so-called biosynthetic gene clusters in the wheat genome. Gene clusters that produce defense molecules have also previously been found in other cereal crops such as oat and rice.