Wheat 1&2

Question 1

Term

Answer 1

Definition

Question 2

Global Food Production

Answer 2

Production centered around 9 key crops that provide over 50% of human calories, including wheat, rice, and maize.

Question 3

Sugar cane

Answer 3

Highest-producing crop (1.9 billion metric tons), despite lower land use.

Question 4

Wheat

Answer 4

Covers the most land (~215 million acres); key crop in human history and protein source.

Question 5

Nutritional calorie

Answer 5

Equal to 1,000 standard calories (kcal), used in dietary energy calculations.

Question 6

Arable land

Answer 6

Land suitable for growing crops; about 3.2 billion acres globally.

Question 7

IPC classification system

Answer 7

Stands for Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a scale from Phase 1 (food secure) to Phase 5 (famine).

Question 8

Gluten

Answer 8

Main wheat protein group; gives dough its elasticity and form; made up of gliadin and glutenin.

Question 9

Celiac disease

Answer 9

Autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten; affects ~1% of population.

Question 10

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity

Answer 10

Controversial gluten-related condition; may actually be related to FODMAPs.

Question 11

Vernalization

Answer 11

The requirement of a cold period for winter wheat to germinate.

Question 12

Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus

Answer 12

Disease spread by wheat curl mite, affects wheat crops.

Question 13

Einkorn wheat

Answer 13

Ancient, diploid (2n) wheat species with hard hull; first cultivated wheat.

Question 14

Emmer wheat

Answer 14

Tetraploid (4n) wheat from hybridization of einkorn with goatgrass.

Question 15

Durum wheat

Answer 15

Hard, high-protein tetraploid wheat used in pasta.

Question 16

Common wheat

Answer 16

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), hexaploid (6n); makes up 95% of wheat production.

Question 17

Turkey Red

Answer 17

Hard winter wheat variety brought by Mennonites to the U.S. Midwest.

Question 18

Fife Red

Answer 18

Wheat variety from Canada with red kernels; widely grown in North America.

Question 19

Norman Borlaug

Answer 19

Led rust-resistant, high-yield wheat breeding in Mexico; father of the Green Revolution; Nobel laureate.

Question 20

Green Revolution

Answer 20

Agricultural transformation starting mid-20th century, involving improved crops and techniques.

Question 21

Landraces

Answer 21

Local crop varieties with high genetic diversity and adaptability, but lower and more variable yields.

Question 22

Cultivars

Answer 22

Selectively bred crop varieties with high uniformity and yield but lower genetic diversity.

Question 23

Modernization bottleneck

Answer 23

Genetic narrowing due to selective breeding of high-yielding crop cultivars.

Question 24

Colchicine

Answer 24

Chemical that induces polyploidy in plants by disrupting cell division.

Question 25

CRISPR-Cas9

Answer 25

Modern genetic engineering tool for precise genome editing.

Question 26

Perennial wheat

Answer 26

A long-term breeding goal to create wheat that regrows year after year; pursued by Wes Jackson's Land Institute.

Question 27

Semolina

Answer 27

Coarse flour from hard durum wheat used in pasta.

Question 28

Bulgur

Answer 28

Parboiled, dried, and cracked wheat used in pilafs and salads.

Question 29

Wheat curl mite

Answer 29

Insect pest that transmits wheat viruses like WSMV.

Question 30

Wheat anatomy

Answer 30

Includes tillers, spikes, spikelets, florets, palea, lemma, awns, glumes; hull = outer bracts (aka chaff when removed).

Question 31

Rust blight

Answer 31

Fungal disease that affects wheat; spurred breeding programs for resistance.