Unlocking a genome
Long before we had wheat we domesticated einkorn, a grain variety which is one of the ancestors of our current bread wheat. There are both domesticated as wild einkorn variants. Moreover, this grain has a high disease resistance. And it has in contrast to the sextuple genome of wheat, a diploid genome. All together an interesting plant. And now an international group of researchers has got its genome completely sequenced.
The researchers wanted to get an as complete as possible overview of the einkorn genome. Therefore, the researchers determined its genome sequence in both a domesticated and a wild variety. Comparing the two showed large overlaps.
After determining the basic genome, the researchers analysed the genomes of 219 einkorn variants in the hope to get to know more about its genetic variety and evolutionary history. They noticed a strong relationship between the domesticated variants and wild variants of the ß-population. But that was not all. The researchers also observed traces of the γ-population, about 1%, in the domesticated varieties.
The unlocking of the einkorn genome can contribute to more robust wheat varieties
Subsequently the researchers compared the einkorn genome with the wheat genome. Hereby they saw about 1% einkorn DNA in wheat genome A. Zooming in it turned out that this einkorn DNA was coming from multiple domesticated einkorn variants. Therefore, it is likely that the precursor of the A genome of wheat was crossed at multiple times with different einkorn variants.
The unlocking of the einkorn genome has for wheat researchers and breeders a large impact. Now breeders can use information from the einkorn genome to identify gene variants that bring disease resistance.
In addition, the researchers show that they can use einkorn to study the effect of wheat gene variants. Now the effect of a gene variant is often masked by multiple alternative versions of the same gene. But in einkorn with only a dipoid genome, this effect is smaller or in the best outcome completely absent. Allowing the effect of the to be studied gene to be observed. In this way even the oldest domesticated crop can still contribute to the development of the crops of the future.
Literature
Ahmed, H.I., Heuberger, M., Schoen, A. et al. Einkorn genomics sheds light on history of the oldest domesticated wheat. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06389-7
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