A ten-nation consortium has reported the first high-quality reference genome sequence of barley. A notable and long-awaited community resource for cereal genetics and genomics, the genome will provide vital information for researchers who seek to accelerate barley improvement through breeding._x000D_
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One of the first grains to be cultivated, today barley is a major cereal crop, widely grown around the world and Finland’s largest crop by area planted and harvest. However, 80% of the barley genome consists of repetitive sequences that make it hard to sequence._x000D_
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Now, an international consortium has made a breakthrough in sequencing the complex barley genome, two times larger the human one. In a ten year research project, the genome was sequenced and assembled using an array of state-of-the-art methods._x000D_
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“For the first time, scientists can now locate all genes precisely in the genome and analyze complex gene families that play a key role in malting and resilience”, explains Finnish research professor Alan Schulman._x000D_
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“The barley genome sequence also highlighted regions vulnerable to genetic erosion and will help breeders recover genetic diversity in their crop improvement efforts.”_x000D_
Meeting the challenges
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Developing climate-smart and pathogen-resistant crops is the key current challenge of plant breeding. The genome sequence of a crop reveals detailed information on the location, structure and function of its genes, useful knowledge for the breeding needed to boost crop improvement._x000D_
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“We can proudly say that the ten years of hard work has paid off. The science community is now a step closer in meeting the challenge and being able to develop barley that can maintain high yields in a changing environment to safeguard our food security”, Schulman concludes._x000D_
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The outcome of the research, A chromosome conformation capture ordered sequence of the barley genome, is reported in the latest volume of Nature._x000D_
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—www.luke.fi/en/
