Quinoa could hold the key to feeding the world’s growing population because it can thrive in harsh environments and grows well on poor quality, marginal lands. KAUST researchers have now completed the first high-quality sequence of the Chenopodium quinoa genome, and they have begun pinpointing genes that could be manipulated to change the way the plant matures and produces food. This project brought together 33 researchers from 4 continents, including 20 people from 7 research groups at KAUST, to produce an article that will be published this week in Nature and will feature on the cover of the February 16 issue.