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Wild emmer genome architecture and diversity elucidate wheat evolution and domestication

  • Raz Avni
  • , Moran Nave
  • , Omer Barad
  • , Kobi Baruch
  • , Sven O. Twardziok
  • , Heidrun Gundlach
  • , Iago Hale
  • , Martin Mascher
  • , Manuel Spannagl
  • , Krystalee Wiebe
  • , Katherine W. Jordan
  • , Guy Golan
  • , Jasline Deek
  • , Batsheva Ben-Zvi
  • , Gil Ben-Zvi
  • , Axel Himmelbach
  • , Ron P. Maclachlan
  • , Andrew G. Sharpe
  • , Allan Fritz
  • , Roi Ben-David
  • Hikmet Budak, Tzion Fahima, Abraham Korol, Justin D. Faris, Alvaro Hernandez, Mark A. Mikel, Avraham A. Levy, Brian Steffenson, Marco Maccaferri, Roberto Tuberosa, Luigi Cattivelli, Primetta Faccioli, Aldo Ceriotti, Khalil Kashkush, Mohammad Pourkheirandish, Takao Komatsuda, Tamar Eilam, Hanan Sela, Amir Sharon, Nir Ohad, Daniel A. Chamovitz, Klaus F.X. Mayer, Nils Stein, Gil Ronen, Zvi Peleg, Curtis J. Pozniak, Eduard D. Akhunov, Assaf Distelfeld*
*Corresponding author for this work
  • NRGENE
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
  • University of New Hampshire
  • Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research
  • German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
  • University of Saskatchewan
  • Kansas State University
  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Tel Aviv University
  • Agricultural Research Organization of Israel
  • Montana State University
  • University of Haifa
  • United States Department of Agriculture
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Weizmann Institute of Science
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • University of Bologna
  • Council of Agricultural Research and Economics–Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics
  • National Research Council of Italy
  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  • National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
  • Technical University of Munich

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

666 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is one of the founder crops that likely drove the Neolithic transition to sedentary agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent more than 10,000 years ago. Identifying genetic modifications underlying wheat’s domestication requires knowledge about the genome of its allo-tetraploid progenitor, wild emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides).We report a 10.1-gigabase assembly of the 14 chromosomes of wild tetraploid wheat, as well as analyses of gene content, genome architecture, and genetic diversity. With this fully assembled polyploid wheat genome, we identified the causal mutations in Brittle Rachis 1 (TtBtr1) genes controlling shattering, a key domestication trait. A study of genomic diversity among wild and domesticated accessions revealed genomic regions bearing the signature of selection under domestication. This reference assembly will serve as a resource for accelerating the genome-assisted improvement of modern wheat varieties.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)93-97
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume357
Issue number6346
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Jul 2017

Funding

FundersFunder number
Italian Ministry of Education and Research Flagship InterOmicsPB05
Saskashewan Ministry of Agriculture and Western Grains Research Foundation
U.S. Agency for International Development Middle East Research and CooperationM34-037
USDA NIFA
National Institute of Food and Agriculture2016-67013-24473
University of MinnesotaLSYQ00000000
Genome Canada
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and DevelopmentI-1212-315.13
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2015409, 2013396
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung031A536, 0314000, 0315954
Israel Science Foundation999/12, 1824/12, 322/15
Tel Aviv University
Genome Prairie

    UN SDGs

    This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    1. SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
      SDG 2 Zero Hunger

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