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The large genome and allohexaploidy of common wheat have complicated construction of a high-density genetic map. Although improvements in the throughput of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have made it possible to obtain a large amount of genotyping data for an entire mapping population by direct sequencing, including hexaploid wheat, a significant number of missing data points are often apparent due to the low coverage of sequencing. In the present study, a microarray-based polymorphism detection system was developed using NGS data obtained from complexity-reduced genomic DNA of two common wheat cultivars, Chinese Spring (CS) and Mironovskaya 808. After design and selection of polymorphic probes, 13,056 new markers were added to the linkage map of a recombinant inbred mapping population between CS and Mironovskaya 808. On average, 2.49 missing data points per marker were observed in the 201 recombinant inbred lines, with a maximum of 42. Around 40% of the new markers were derived from genic regions and 11% from repetitive regions. The low number of retroelements indicated that the new polymorphic markers were mainly derived from the less repetitive region of the wheat genome. Around 25% of the mapped sequences were useful for alignment with the physical map of barley. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses of 14 agronomically important traits related to flowering, spikes, and seeds demonstrated that the new high-density map showed improved QTL detection, resolution, and accuracy over the original simple sequence repeat map.

Common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important cereals in the world. To improve wheat quality and productivity, the genomic sequence of wheat must be determined. The large genome size (∼17 Gb/1 C) and the hexaploid status of wheat have hampered the genome sequencing of wheat. However, flow sorting of individual chromosomes has allowed us to purify and separately shotgun-sequence a pair of telocentric chromosomes. Here, we describe a result from the survey sequencing of wheat chromosome 6B (914 Mb/1 C) using massively parallel 454 pyrosequencing. From the 4.94 and 5.51 Gb shotgun sequence data from the two chromosome arms of 6BS and 6BL, 235 and 273 Mb sequences were assembled to cover ∼55.6 and 54.9% of the total genomic regions, respectively. Repetitive sequences composed 77 and 86% of the assembled sequences on 6BS and 6BL, respectively. Within the assembled sequences, we predicted a total of 4798 non-repetitive gene loci with the evidence of expression from the wheat transcriptome data. The numbers and chromosomal distribution patterns of the genes for tRNAs and microRNAs in wheat 6B were investigated, and the results suggested a significant involvement of DNA transposon diffusion in the evolution of these non-protein-coding RNA genes. A comparative analysis of the genomic sequences of wheat 6B and monocot plants clearly indicated the evolutionary conservation of gene contents., コムギのゲノム配列の概要解読に成功 -コムギの新品種開発の加速化に期待-. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2014-07-24.

Construction of high-resolution genetic maps is important for genetic and genomic research, as well as for molecular breeding. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the predominant class of genetic variation and can be used as molecular markers. Aegilops tauschii, the D-genome donor of common wheat, is considered a valuable genetic resource for wheat improvement. Our previous study implied that Ae. tauschii accessions can be genealogically divided into two major lineages. In this study, the transcriptome of two Ae. tauschii accessions from each lineage, lineage 1 (L1) and 2 (L2), was sequenced, yielding 9435 SNPs and 739 insertion/deletion polymorphisms (indels) after de novo assembly of the reads. Based on 36 contig sequences, 31 SNPs and six indels were validated on 20 diverse Ae. tauschii accessions. Because almost all of the SNP markers were polymorphic between L1 and L2, and the D-genome donor of common wheat is presumed to belong to L2, these markers are available for D-genome typing in crosses between common wheat varieties and L1-derived synthetic wheat. Due to the conserved synteny between wheat and barley chromosomes, the high-density expressed sequence tag barley map and the hypothetical gene order in barley can be applied to develop markers on target chromosomal regions in wheat.