2020/11/25 by Murukarthick Jayakodi, Sudharsan Padmarasu, Georg Haberer +41 · 22 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Wheat and Barley Genetics and Pathology #Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics #Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2947-8
openalex publication_date 2020/11/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract Genetic diversity is key to crop improvement. Owing to pervasive genomic structural variation, a single reference genome assembly cannot capture the full complement of sequence diversity of a crop species (known as the ‘pan-genome’ 1 ). Multiple high-quality sequence assemblies are an indispensable component of a pan-genome infrastructure. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) is an important cereal crop with a long history of cultivation that is adapted to a wide range of agro-climatic conditions 2 . Here we report the construction of chromosome-scale sequence assemblies for the genotypes of 20 varieties of barley—comprising landraces, cultivars and a wild barley—that were selected as representatives of global barley diversity. We catalogued genomic presence/absence variants and explored the use of structural variants for quantitative genetic analysis through whole-genome shotgun sequencing of 300 gene bank accessions. We discovered abundant large inversion polymorphisms and analysed in detail two inversions that are frequently found in current elite barley germplasm; one is probably the product of mutation breeding and the other is tightly linked to a locus that is involved in the expansion of geographical range. This first-generation barley pan-genome makes previously hidden genetic variation accessible to genetic studies and breeding.