GLOBAL STUDY DEVELOPS 1ST GENOMIC ATLAS FOR WHEAT

Researchers from the John Innes Center and Earlham Institute in the United Kingdom (UK) have contributed to a major international collaboration that could catalyze a new era of wheat discovery.

The international team has sequenced the genomes of 15 wheat varieties from around the world enabling scientists and breeders to much more quickly find influential genes for improved yield, pest resistance and other important crop traits.

The research, led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and published in Nature, provides the most comprehensive atlas of wheat genome sequences ever reported, a resource described by the research team as a pan-genome.

The 10+ Genome Project collaboration involved more than 95 scientists from universities and institutes in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Israel, Australia and the US.

The aim of the research was to define the entire DNA sequence of multiple varieties of wheat sourced from breeding programs across several continents, detailing where important genes can be found across these different varieties in the process.

“It’s like finding the missing pieces for your favourite puzzle that you have been working on for decades,” said project leader Curtis Pozniak, wheat breeder and director of the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC).

“By having many complete gene assemblies available, we can now help solve the huge puzzle that is the massive wheat pan-genome and usher in a new era for wheat discovery and breeding.”

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