Researchers shed light on the genetics of barley grain
Published: Wednesday, Nov 13th 2024, 18:20
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In the genetic analysis of cultivated plants, researchers have compared cultivated plants with their "wild" ancestors. The current study on the so-called barley genome sheds light on the evolution and breeding of cultivated plants.
An international research team led by the IPK Leibniz Institute, in which the University of Zurich was also involved, reported on a pangenome of barley, one of the most important crop plants.
Pangenomes are collections of annotated genome sequences of several individuals of a species. The contiguous long-term sequences help to understand the flood and patterns of sequence data. The study examined long-term sequence assemblies from 76 wild and domesticated genomes and short-term sequence data from 1315 genotypes. The results were published on Wednesday in the journal "Nature".
As humans adopted a new way of life, cultivated plants also had to adapt to the needs of their domesticators. There are different adaptive requirements in a wild compared to a cultivated environment. Cultivated plants and their wild ancestors differ, for example, in how many branches they initiate or how many seeds or fruits they produce and when.
Diversity remains after domestication
According to the researchers, the evolution of cultivated plants does not necessarily mean a loss of diversity. The panel of 1000 plant genetic resources and 315 varieties made it possible to compare the pangenome complexity in cultivated plants and their wild ancestors. The study showed that valuable diversity can arise after domestication.
To demonstrate the usefulness of the pangenome, the researchers focused on several positions of a gene in a chromosome and the traits they control, including disease resistance, plant architecture and starch mobilization of the grain.
Adapted to the environment
If you consider the environment as a set of external factors that drive natural selection, barley offers an economically important example, according to the researchers: the malting process involves the germination of wet barley grains, which releases enzymes that break down starch into fermentable sugars. New allelic variations, i.e. the different forms of a gene that exist in the same place on chromosomes, are an example of the power of pangenomics.
The results showed that much of the diversity the research team saw in the pangenome could have helped crops to adapt to new ecosystems.
Barley is one of the five most important crops in the world today. Its importance could increase in the future, as the grain tolerates harsh and marginal environments and can adapt to dry climates.
The barley genome project brought together 80 scientists from 12 different countries and was initiated and coordinated at the IPK-Leipnitz Institute. The Institute of Plant and Microbiology at the University of Zurich was also involved.
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