Despite the importance of winter wheat in Central Asian countries, there are limited reports describing their diversity within this region. In this study, the population structures of 115 modern winter wheat cultivars from four Central Asian countries were compared to germplasms from six other geographic origins using 10,746 polymorphic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. After applying the STRUCTURE package, we found that in terms of the most optimal K steps, samples from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were grouped together with samples from Russia, while samples from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were grouped with samples from Afghanistan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe bread wheat () pangenome is a patchwork of variable regions, including translocations and introgressions from progenitors and wild relatives. Although a large number of these have been documented, it is likely that many more remain unknown. To map these variable regions and make them more traceable in breeding programs, wheat accessions need to be genotyped or sequenced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the world's most important crops; however, a low level of genetic diversity within commercial breeding accessions can significantly limit breeding potential. In contrast, wheat relatives exhibit considerable genetic variation and so potentially provide a valuable source of novel alleles for use in breeding new cultivars. Historically, gene flow between wheat and its relatives may have contributed novel alleles to the bread wheat pangenome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genus contains a diverse collection of wild species exhibiting variation in geographical distribution, ecological adaptation, ploidy and genome organization. is the most closely related genus to which includes cultivated wheat, a globally important crop that has a limited gene pool for modern breeding. species are a potential future resource for wheat breeding for traits, such as adaptation to different ecological conditions and pest and disease resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe bacterial and eukaryotic communities forming biofilms on six different antifouling coatings, three biocidal and three fouling-release, on boards statically submerged in a marine environment were studied using next-generation sequencing. Sequenced amplicons of bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA and eukaryotic ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer were assigned taxonomy by comparison to reference databases and relative abundances were calculated. Differences in species composition, bacterial and eukaryotic, and relative abundance were observed between the biofilms on the various coatings; the main difference was between coating type, biocidal compared to fouling-release.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWheat breeders and academics alike use single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as molecular markers to characterize regions of interest within the hexaploid wheat genome. A number of SNP-based genotyping platforms are available, and their utility depends upon factors such as the available technologies, number of data points required, budgets and the technical expertise required. Unfortunately, markers can rarely be exchanged between existing and newly developed platforms, meaning that previously generated data cannot be compared, or combined, with more recently generated data sets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA lack of genetic diversity between wheat breeding lines has been recognized as a significant block to future yield increases. Wheat breeding and prebreeding strategies are increasingly using material from wheat ancestors or wild relatives to reintroduce diversity. Where molecular markers are polymorphic between the host and introgressed material, they may be used to track the size and location of the introgressed material through generations of backcrossing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe importance of wheat as a food crop makes it a major target for agricultural improvements. As one of the most widely grown cereal grains, together with maize and rice, wheat is the leading provider of calories in the global diet, constituting 29% of global cereal production in 2015. In the last few decades, however, yields have plateaued, suggesting that the green revolution, at least for wheat, might have run its course and that new sources of genetic variation are urgently required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTargeted selection and inbreeding have resulted in a lack of genetic diversity in elite hexaploid bread wheat accessions. Reduced diversity can be a limiting factor in the breeding of high yielding varieties and crucially can mean reduced resilience in the face of changing climate and resource pressures. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of molecular markers for use in the assessment and utilization of genetic diversity in hexaploid wheat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The increase in human populations around the world has put pressure on resources, and as a consequence food security has become an important challenge for the 21st century. Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important crops in human and livestock diets, and the development of wheat varieties that produce higher yields, combined with increased resistance to pests and resilience to changes in climate, has meant that wheat breeding has become an important focus of scientific research. In an attempt to facilitate these improvements in wheat, plant breeders have employed molecular tools to help them identify genes for important agronomic traits that can be bred into new varieties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn wheat, a lack of genetic diversity between breeding lines has been recognized as a significant block to future yield increases. Species belonging to bread wheat's secondary and tertiary gene pools harbour a much greater level of genetic variability, and are an important source of genes to broaden its genetic base. Introgression of novel genes from progenitors and related species has been widely employed to improve the agronomic characteristics of hexaploid wheat, but this approach has been hampered by a lack of markers that can be used to track introduced chromosome segments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Bioinformatics
September 2012
Background: Food security is an issue that has come under renewed scrutiny amidst concerns that substantial yield increases in cereal crops are required to feed the world's booming population. Wheat is of fundamental importance in this regard being one of the three most important crops for both human consumption and livestock feed; however, increase in crop yields have not kept pace with the demands of a growing world population. In order to address this issue, plant breeders require new molecular tools to help them identify genes for important agronomic traits that can be introduced into elite varieties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBread wheat, Triticum aestivum, is an allohexaploid composed of the three distinct ancestral genomes, A, B and D. The polyploid nature of the wheat genome together with its large size has limited our ability to generate the significant amount of sequence data required for whole genome studies. Even with the advent of next-generation sequencing technology, it is still relatively expensive to generate whole genome sequences for more than a few wheat genomes at any one time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTemperature and light are important environmental stimuli that have a profound influence on the growth and development of plants. Wheat varieties can be divided on the basis of whether they require an extended period of cold to flower (vernalization). Varieties that have a requirement for vernalization also tend to be winter hardy and are able to withstand quite extreme subzero temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: For plants to flower at the appropriate time, they must be able to perceive and respond to various internal and external cues. Wheat is generally a long-day plant that will go through phase transition from vegetative to floral growth as days are lengthening in spring and early summer. In addition to this response to day-length, wheat cultivars may be classified as either winter or spring varieties depending on whether they require to be exposed to an extended period of cold in order to become competent to flower.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe stability, both genetic and phenotypic, of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivar Desiree plants derived from alternative propagation methodologies has been compared. Plants obtained through three clonal propagation routes-axillary-bud-proliferation, microtuberisation and a novel somatic embryogenesis system, and through true potato seeds (TPS) produced by selfing were evaluated at three levels: gross phenotype and minituber yield, changes in ploidy (measured by flow cytometry) and by molecular marker analysis [measured using AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism)].
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