IWGSC Whole Genome Shotgun Sequencing of Chinese Spring to Complement the High Quality BAC-Based Sequencing of All 21 Wheat Chromosomes

Wheat is one of the world’s most important food crops and provides >20% of the protein and calories for the world’s population. Breeding and agronomic improvements have achieved a linear increase in global food production but 70% more food will be required by 2050, which represents a 38% increase over historical rates. To keep pace, improved wheat cultivars are needed at a time when yield gains are stagnating in many parts of the world due to increased pest and disease pressure and extreme weather patterns linked to climate change.  Of all major crops, wheat is the only major crop that lacks an ordered genome sequence, which has slowed identification of genes underlying phenotypic expression of agriculturally important traits. 

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) was established in 2005 as an international, collaborative consortium with the goal of producing a high quality reference sequence of the 17 Gbp allohexaploid (2n = 6x = 42), bread wheat genome, Chinese Spring. The IWGSC has followed an approach to develop separate physical maps, draft sequences, and high quality sequencing of the Minimum Tiling Paths (MTP) of mapped BAC clones for each chromosome.  Recent innovations in Illumina sequencing technology and NRGene’s computational genomics have enabled the IWGSC to produce rapidly a whole genome shotgun sequence of the Chinese Spring genome to complement the ongoing BAC-based sequencing thus aiming to accelerate the completion of the gold standard reference sequence.  The latest results produced by the IWGSC will be presented.