A new genetic directory launched today will enable researchers and breeders to scan the genomes of wild relatives of modern wheat to find disease-fighting properties lost to domestication.
The time-travelling trawl is possible following the launch of Open Wild Wheat, a directory which includes the genetic sequences of 150 wild wheats belonging to a goat grass species called Aegilops tauschii ssp.strangulata.
This wild relative, found in the fertile crescent round the Caspian sea, has contributed the D genome pillar, one of the three genomes found in bread wheat.
The directory is the crowd-funded outcome of an international consortium led by wheat researchers at the John Innes Centre and Kansas State University. Contributors from academic institutions and industry spanning 15 countries raised $150,000 to fund the sequencing.
Dr Brande Wulff, from the John Innes Centre, explained the motivation behind the project: “If you sequence a single individual you just get a snapshot. So, to understand the whole genetic diversity that comes with a species we decided to sequence not one but 150.” Read more