Grain
Chinese Spring
C tier
Chinese Spring is a hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) that became the global reference cultivar for wheat genetics, cytogenetics, and genomics. Selected for ease of chromosome manipulation and wide crossability, it is the background for landmark genome assemblies rather than a commercial flour brand. Grain and flour are ordinary softish bread-wheat type and are rarely marketed by cultivar name to bakers. Its importance is scientific: aneuploid stocks, gene mapping, and the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium’s reference sequence are all built on Chinese Spring.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
History
Landrace material later known as Chinese Spring was grown in China among diverse hexaploid wheats.
E.R. Sears and others adopted Chinese Spring for cytogenetic work because of its chromosome behaviour.
Sears’s Chinese Spring aneuploid series became foundational tools for wheat chromosome genetics.
Molecular and RFLP maps used Chinese Spring as the standard genetic background.
The IWGSC published a high-quality Chinese Spring reference genome for Triticum aestivum.
Breeders and researchers worldwide continued to anchor gene discovery to Chinese Spring coordinates.