The Wheat Genome Sequence – Experiences and Expectations of an AgBiotech Company

The wheat genome sequence provides an instrumental road map for crop geneticists and breeders. Sequencing this huge genome became possible thanks to a combination of chromosome sorting, next-generation sequencing technologies and advanced bioinformatic approaches. Yet, the exceptional scale and repeat content of the wheat genome form a challenge to these technologies and algorithms and result in a today still scattered collection of relatively short, partly ordered contigs.

Even with this limitation, wheat improvement approaches are now guided by an unprecedented wealth and precision of sequence information. The current sequence is valuable for in silico SNP mapping and mapping transcriptome data to subgenomes and individual gene family members. Any application centered on individual genes or loci, including gene cloning, targeted resequencing and mutation screening approaches, can be refined with the genome information. Marker choices in fine-mapping and introgression projects benefit both from genetic maps and synteny-based physical information. The genome is instrumental in genotyping-by-sequencing for genetic map construction and NGS-based bulked segregant analyses. Finally, the genome anchors a high-density variome and facilitates genetics to move from biparental populations to less or unstructured populations, truly exploring GWAS and genomic selection.

Together, the genome sequence opens diverse opportunities to direct and optimize the discovery and use of genetic variation for breeding and crop improvement. The use of the genome sequence along the path from trait discovery to bringing new varieties to the market will be illustrated.