A Gene Nomenclature for the Triticeae Tribe

Since 1968 the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat (McIntosh et al., 2013) has curated and compiled names and symbols for the wheat community becoming a recognised authority by researchers and breeders. There is, however, limited use of these gene symbols and names in the annotation of the current genomics sequences restricting the adoption of these valuable resources. A number of high-quality genome sequences have been completed in recent years for Triticeae species including a whole-genome reference for the Chinese Spring cultivar of the large hexaploid genome. This follows the generation of genomic sequences for other related Triticeae species including the wheat progenitors, barley and the first durum wheat genome. Most of these genomes have been annotated using high-throughput automatic methods offering a wealth of information to the research and breeding communities. The correct identification of gene structures in annotated genome references using a coherent and standard nomenclature across the Triticeae species will support the wider adoption of these resources. We will present a scheme that emerged from the “Triticeae Gene Nomenclature Workshop”. This meeting was organised with the sponsorship of the Wheat Initiative on 11-13 October 2016 at the Helmholtz Centrum in Munich (Germany). The scheme is focused on the orthologous and syntenic relationship that is highly conserved in genes across the Triticeae tribe. The priority is to designate symbols to gene structures that are already annotated and currently characterised in the literature and that have an established name in the Catalogue but we have also set the principles for the assignment of new symbols and descriptions.