Triticum is the taxonomic genus containing wheat, within the grass family Poaceae. A taxonomic genus groups related species; it is consequently broader than Triticum aestivum, the species used as common bread wheat. Keeping these ranks separate prevents a result measured in one cultivated species from automatically becoming a statement about every Triticum.[ref]
Triticum in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. TSN42236, rank, family and direct children
The genus is especially useful for studying polyploidy. In bread wheat, three related ancestral genomes are represented twice, conventionally written AABBDD. Seven chromosomes per ancestral set give chromosomes. The letters label related inherited sets; they do not mean that there are only three chromosomes.[ref]
Dual effect of the wheat Ph1 locus on chromosome synapsis and crossover by Azahara C. Martín and others. Introduction, hexaploid wheat genome constitution
During meiosis, a chromosome must distinguish its homologous chromosome from similar chromosomes belonging to the other ancestral sets. Comparing chromosome pairing in ordinary wheat with pairing after alteration of the Ph1 locus tests how this distinction is controlled. Thus Triticum connects crop classification with the cell-level problem of distributing multiple related genomes reliably between generations.[ref]
Dual effect of the wheat Ph1 locus on chromosome synapsis and crossover by Azahara C. Martín and others. Results, comparison of synapsis and crossovers with and without Ph1
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