The Barley Gene-ome

Barley is one of the most important cereal crop species and it is a close relative of wheat and rye. The haploid genome size of barley exceeds 5 Gigabases, almost twice the size of any complete sequenced organism or crop species. Recently, the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium (IBSC) established a highly integrated physical / genetic and functional sequence resource of barley. 80 % of the genome is represented in a genetically anchored physical map. 380 Mbp of BAC end sequences, about 6.000 draft sequenced and assembled BAC clones (750 Mbp), and more than 300 Mbp of assembled whole genome shotgun sequence could be integrated into this physical / genetic scaffold. RNAseq data from 8 different developmental stages of barley was used for gene annotation and 26,000 high-confidence genes with homology to sequenced plant genomes were annotated - 20,000 of these transcriptionally active genes were directly placed into the ‘gene-ome’ of barley. This step- changing resource is enabling true genome scale analysis in barley and lays the foundation for genomics based breeding and crop improvement.