The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) has mapped the wheat genome more completely and accurately than before, a move that will benefit breeders and researchers.

The ‘landmark’ achievement will aid international research efforts, making the discovery of key genes governing yield, disease resistance and nutrient use easier to identify, and help wheat breeders accelerate their crop improvement programmes.  

The wheat genome is now assembled into fewer and much larger chunks of DNA and covers regions that previous assemblies did not reach, such as complicated highly repetitive regions that form about 80 per cent of the DNA sequences. the wheat genome is huge and complex - the staple crop’s genome is five times the size of the human genome.

Matt Clark, Group Leader at TGAC, who led the sequencing work, explained, “Wheat has a very large and complex genome. It’s has been a complex problem that has confounded scientists for several years.”

The work was took a major effort on the part of researchers at Norwich-based TGAC; the sequencing work took three weeks to complete on one of the UK’s largest supercomputers, which was specially configured for work on wheat.

TGAC team member Bernardo Clavijo overhauled software developed in the US for use in assembling the human genome, which means it can now assemble several wheat genomes, with great speed and precision. This will allow researchers to generate assemblies of different varieties of wheat, which is an essential step in breeding and research work.

Mike Bevan from the John Innes Centre commented, “The capacity to sequence and assemble many wheat genomes efficiently breaks down major barriers to wheat crop improvement. We will now be able to exploit genetic variation from ancestral wheat varieties for crop improvement in new ways.”

On Friday, Ksenia Krasileva, Group Leader at TGAC, who has conducted an initial assessment of the assemblies, said, “One of the most complex and large groups of genes in wheat are those that contribute to the nutritional and bread-making quality of the grain. These are all present in complete copies in the genome, suggesting other hard-to-assemble genes are also accurately represented.”

The researchers have released their data to other scientists and breeders, as part of the Wheat Initiative’s commitment to data sharing, for greater food production.