Comparative gene retention analysis in barley, wild emmer, and bread wheat pangenome lines reveals factors affecting gene retention following gene duplication.

Background: Gene duplication is a prevalent phenomenon and a major driving force underlying genome evolution. The process leading to the fixation of gene duplicates following duplication is critical to understand how genome evolves but remains fragmentally understood. Most previous studies on gene retention are based on gene duplicate analyses in single reference genome.

Harnessing Transcription Factors as Potential Tools to Enhance Grain Size Under Stressful Abiotic Conditions in Cereal Crops.

Predicted climate change is widely cited to significantly reduce yields of the major cereal crop species in a period where demand is rapidly rising due to a growing global population. This requires exhaustive research to develop genetic resources in order to address the expected production deficiencies which will largely be driven by abiotic stress. Modification of multiple genes is an approach that can address the predicted challenges; however, it is time-consuming and costly to modify multiple genes simultaneously.

Fine mapping qGL2H, a major locus controlling grain length in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).

A major grain length QTL on chromosome 2H was fine mapped to a 140.9 Kb region containing three genes. Increasing yield is an important target for barley breeding programs.

Fine mapping of qGL5H, a major grain length locus in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).

A major grain length QTL on chromosome 5H was fine mapped from 180.5 to 1.7 Mb.