Background: Genebanks around the globe serve as valuable repositories of genetic diversity, offering not only access to a broad spectrum of plant material but also critical resources for enhancing crop resilience, advancing scientific research, and supporting global food security. To this end, traditional genebanks are evolving into biodigital resource centers where the integration of phenotypic and genotypic data for accessions can drive more informed decision-making, optimize resource allocation, and unlock new opportunities for plant breeding and research. However, the curation and availability of interoperable phenotypic and genotypic data for genebank accessions is still in its infancy and represents an obstacle to rapid scientific discoveries in this field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA pan-transcriptome describes the transcriptional and post-transcriptional consequences of genome diversity from multiple individuals within a species. We developed a barley pan-transcriptome using 20 inbred genotypes representing domesticated barley diversity by generating and analyzing short- and long-read RNA-sequencing datasets from multiple tissues. To overcome single reference bias in transcript quantification, we constructed genotype-specific reference transcript datasets (RTDs) and integrated these into a linear pan-genome framework to create a pan-RTD, allowing transcript categorization as core, shell or cloud.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe tetraploid genome and clonal propagation of the cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) dictate a slow, non-accumulative breeding mode of the most important tuber crop. Transitioning potato breeding to a seed-propagated hybrid system based on diploid inbred lines has the potential to greatly accelerate its improvement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBarley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare) is one of the oldest founder crops in human civilization and has been widely dispersed across the globe to support human society as a livestock feed and a raw material for the brewing industries. Since the early half of the 20th century, it has been used for innovative research on cytogenetics, biochemistry, and genetics, facilitated by its mode of reproduction through self-pollination and its true diploid status, which have contributed to the accumulation of numerous germplasm and mutant resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPangenomes are collections of annotated genome sequences of multiple individuals of a species. The structural variants uncovered by these datasets are a major asset to genetic analysis in crop plants. Here we report a pangenome of barley comprising long-read sequence assemblies of 76 wild and domesticated genomes and short-read sequence data of 1,315 genotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrop translational genomics applies breeding techniques based on genomic datasets to improve crops. Technological breakthroughs in the past ten years have made it possible to sequence the genomes of increasing numbers of crop varieties and have assisted in the genetic dissection of crop performance. However, translating research findings to breeding applications remains challenging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a globally dominant crop and major source of calories and proteins for the human diet. Compared with its wild ancestors, modern bread wheat shows lower genetic diversity, caused by polyploidisation, domestication and breeding bottlenecks. Wild wheat relatives represent genetic reservoirs, and harbour diversity and beneficial alleles that have not been incorporated into bread wheat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn enduring question in evolutionary biology concerns the degree to which episodes of convergent trait evolution depend on the same genetic programs, particularly over long timescales. In this work, we genetically dissected repeated origins and losses of prickles-sharp epidermal projections-that convergently evolved in numerous plant lineages. Mutations in a cytokinin hormone biosynthetic gene caused at least 16 independent losses of prickles in eggplants and wild relatives in the genus .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the realm of agricultural sustainability, the utilization of plant genetic resources for enhanced disease resistance is paramount. Preservation efforts in genebanks are justified by their potential contributions to future crop improvement. To capitalize on the potential of plant genetic resources, we focused on a barley core collection from the German ex situ genebank and contrasted it with a European elite collection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBarley (Hordeum vulgare) is an important global cereal crop and a model in genetic studies. Despite advances in characterising barley genomic resources, few mutant studies have identified genes controlling root architecture and anatomy, which plays a critical role in capturing soil resources. Our phenotypic screening of a TILLING mutant collection identified line TM5992 exhibiting a short-root phenotype compared with wild-type (WT) Morex background.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1993, a passionate and provocative call to arms urged cereal researchers to consider the taxon they study as a single genetic system and collaborate with each other. Since then, that group of scientists has seen their discipline blossom. In an attempt to understand what unity of genetic systems means and how the notion was borne out by later research, we survey the progress and prospects of cereal genomics: sequence assemblies, population-scale sequencing, resistance gene cloning and domestication genetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis work is an update and extension of the previously published article "Ultralong Oxford Nanopore Reads Enable the Development of a Reference-Grade Perennial Ryegrass Genome Assembly" by Frei The published genome assembly of the doubled haploid perennial ryegrass ( L.) genotype Kyuss (Kyuss v1.0) marked a milestone for forage grass research and breeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mutants have had a fundamental impact upon scientific and applied genetics. They have paved the way for the molecular and genomic era, and most of today's crop plants are derived from breeding programs involving mutagenic treatments.
Results: Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.
We mapped Ryd4 in a 66.5 kbp interval in barley and dissociated it from a sublethality factor. These results will enable a targeted selection of the resistance in barley breeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant genome sequences catalogue genes and the genetic elements that regulate their expression. Such inventories further research aims as diverse as mapping the molecular basis of trait diversity in domesticated plants or inquiries into the origin of evolutionary innovations in flowering plants millions of years ago. The transformative technological progress of DNA sequencing in the past two decades has enabled researchers to sequence ever more genomes with greater ease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular plants have segmented body axes with iterative nodes and internodes. Appropriate node initiation and internode elongation are fundamental to plant fitness and crop yield; however, how these events are spatiotemporally coordinated remains elusive. We show that in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsideration of the properties of awns is important for the phenotypic description of grain crops. Awns have a number of important functions in grasses, including assimilation, mechanical protection, and seed dispersal and burial. An important feature of the awn is the presence or absence of barbs-tiny hook-like single-celled trichomes on the outer awn surface that can be visualized using microscopic imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBarley genomic resources are increasing rapidly, with the publication of a barley pangenome as one of the latest developments. Two-row spring barley cultivars are intensely studied as they are the source of high-quality grain for malting and distilling. Here we provide data from a European two-row spring barley population containing 209 different genotypes registered for the UK market between 1830 to 2014.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe demonstrate how an algorithm that uses cheap genetic marker data can ensure the taxonomic assignments of genebank samples are complete, intuitive, and consistent-which enhances their value. To maximise the benefit of genebank resources, accurate and complete taxonomic assignments are imperative. The rise of genebank genomics allows genetic methods to be used to ensure this, but these need to be largely automated since the number of samples dealt with is too great for efficient manual recategorisation, however no clearly optimal method has yet arisen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEggplant (Solanum melongena) is an important Solanaceous crop, widely cultivated and consumed in Asia, the Mediterranean basin, and Southeast Europe. Its domestication centers and migration and diversification routes are still a matter of debate. We report the largest georeferenced and genotyped collection to this date for eggplant and its wild relatives, consisting of 3499 accessions from seven worldwide genebanks, originating from 105 countries in five continents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvestigating crop diversity through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on core collections helps in deciphering the genetic determinants of complex quantitative traits. Using the G2P-SOL project world collection of 10 038 wild and cultivated Capsicum accessions from 10 major genebanks, we assembled a core collection of 423 accessions representing the known genetic diversity. Since complex traits are often highly dependent upon environmental variables and genotype-by-environment (G × E) interactions, multi-environment GWAS with a 10 195-marker genotypic matrix were conducted on a highly diverse subset of 350 Capsicum annuum accessions, extensively phenotyped in up to six independent trials from five climatically differing countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants respond to drought by the major reprogramming of gene expression, enabling the plant to survive this threatening environmental condition. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) serves as a crucial upstream signal, inducing this multifaceted process. This report investigated the drought response in barley plants (, cv.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProfessor Andreas Graner stands as a towering figure in international crop plant genomics research, leaving an indelible imprint on the field over the past four decades. As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany and Professor Graner's retirement in September 2023, here we celebrate and acknowledge his profound impact on crop genome analyses and genebank genomics. His trailblazing work extends from developing the first integrated RFLP map of barley, establishing the foundation of barley genome sequencing, and advancing functional genomics of malting quality, to pioneering the use of high-throughput phenomics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelection over 70 years has led to almost complete fixation of a haplotype spanning ~ 250 Mbp of chomosome 5H in European two-rowed spring barleys, possibly originating from North Africa. Plant breeding and selection have shaped the genetic composition of modern crops over the past decades and centuries and have led to great improvements in agronomic and quality traits. Knowledge of the genetic composition of breeding germplasm is essential to make informed decisions in breeding programs.
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