A team of researchers …. has found the genetic difference between bitter wild almonds and the sweet domesticated variety. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they sequenced the almond genome and then compared sections of it in bitter and sweet varieties until they found the sequence that was different.
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The researchers believe their findings will help almond growers become more efficient. Currently, nature sometimes interferes with human cultivation efforts, allowing some almond trees to grow with the wild version of [the gene responsible for the bitter taste]—but farmers are not able to identify them until they grow to produce fruit. Now, they can be tested as soon as they sprout to identify those that will eventually produce bitter nuts.
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Read full, original article: Sequencing the almond reveals how it went from bitter to sweet
