Abstract
Einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum) is an ancient grain crop and a close relative of the diploid progenitor (T. urartu) of polyploid wheat. It is the only diploid wheat species having both domesticated and wild forms and therefore provides an excellent system to identify domestication genes and genes for traits of interest to utilize in wheat improvement. Here, we leverage genomic advancements for einkorn wheat using an einkorn reference genome assembly combined with skim-sequencing of a large genetic population of 812 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) developed from a cross between a wild and a domesticated T. monococcum accession. We identify 15,919 crossover breakpoints delimited to a median and average interval of 114 Kbp and 219 Kbp, respectively. This high-resolution mapping resource enables us to perform fine-scale mapping of one qualitative (red coleoptile) and one quantitative (spikelet number per spike) trait, resulting in the identification of small physical intervals (400 Kb to 700 Kb) with a limited number of candidate genes. Furthermore, an important domestication locus for brittle rachis is also identified on chromosome 7A. This resource presents an exciting route to perform trait discovery in diploid wheat for agronomically important traits and their further deployment in einkorn as well as tetraploid pasta wheat and hexaploid bread wheat cultivars.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | Communications Biology |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 12 2023 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2023-09-01Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge the funding support (Grant No. 2022-67013-36362) received from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) for conducting this study. Facilities provided by the Department of Plant Science and Landscape and Architecture, University of Maryland and Center for Desert Agriculture, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are also greatly acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. Bikram Gill and the Wheat Genetics Resource Center at Kansas State University for providing some useful germplasm.