Next-generation sequencing applications for wheat crop improvement

Paul J. Berkman, Kaitao Lai, Michal T. Lorenc, David Edwards

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    96 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum; Poaceae) is a crop plant of great importance. It provides nearly 20% of the world' s daily food supply measured by calorie intake, similar to that provided by rice. The yield of wheat has doubled over the last 40 years due to a combination of advanced agronomic practice and improved germplasm through selective breeding. More recently, yield growth has been less dramatic, and a significant improvement in wheat production will be required if demand from the growing human population is to be met. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are revolutionizing biology and can be applied to address critical issues in plant biology. Technologies can produce draft sequences of genomes with a significant reduction to the cost and timeframe of traditional technologies. In addition, NGS technologies can be used to assess gene structure and expression, and importantly, to identify heritable genome variation underlying important agronomic traits. This review provides an overview of the wheat genome and NGS technologies, details some of the problems in applying NGS technology to wheat, and describes how NGS technologies are starting to impact wheat crop improvement.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)365-371
    Number of pages7
    JournalAmerican Journal of Botany
    Volume99
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Keywords

    • genomes
    • single nucleotide polymorphisms
    • wheat

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