Reference sequencing of wheat chromosome 5D

Wheat, ranking third in global cereal production after rice and maize, is a leading crop in our country. Bead wheat, comprising 95% of all harvested varieties, has a repeat-rich, hexaploid genome shaped by whole genome duplications and hybridizations. The construction of a reference-quality genome sequence in wheat is critical for an in-depth understanding of the structural and functional components, and for the elucidation of the molecular bases of important agricultural traits such as yield and stress tolerance. Due to its high repeat content and hexaploid nature, reference sequencing of the wheat genome, approximately six times as large as the human genome, is highly challenging. Therefore, despite several survey sequencing projects on wheat some of which have been conducted by our research group, to date, the only chromosome, of the total 21, sequenced to a reference-quality has been chromosome 3B, for which the outcomes have been published in a pioneering scientific journal, Science, last year. A reference quality wheat genome sequence will not only enable efficient screening of the genetic resources for target traits, but also facilitate cloning and identification of candidate genes that have potential uses in molecular breeding programs. 

Funded by Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies, this project aims to sequence the wheat 5DL chromosome to a reference-quality. The reference sequence of the 5DL chromosome, carrying important genes for traits such as disease resistance, will enable the identification of genes, regulatory sequences and other structural features, the design of new molecular markers that can contribute to classical or modern breeding efforts, and provide detailed insight into the polymorphism-poor D-genome of wheat. The project team includes the project manager Prof. Hikmet Budak and researcher Dr. Bala Anı Akpınar from Sabancı University.