中国农业科学院作物科学研究所张学勇等研究人员合作发现，泛基因组桥接小麦结构变异与栖息地和育种。这一研究成果于2024年11月27日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。

研究人员报告了17个小麦品种的染色体级基因组组装，记录了中国小麦育种的历史。比较基因组分析揭示了大量的结构重排，识别出249976个结构变异，其中49.03%（122,567个）大于5 kb。

1980年代开发的品种显示出结构变异的显著积累，这一模式与当时欧洲和美洲品种的大量引入育种计划相关。研究人员进一步证明了，着丝粒邻近区域的结构变异与交叉事件的减少相关。

研究人员表明，普通小麦通过VRN-A1基因的突变和重复从春小麦类型演化为冬小麦类型，以适应变化的环境。研究人员确认了小麦品种的变化与中国西北地区的饮食偏好、迁移和文化融合相关。

研究人员还识别了1RS末端pSc200串联重复的大片段缺失或存在变异，提示其在小麦基因组中的快速演化。17个代表性小麦品种的高质量基因组组装及其与10+全基因组的良好互补性，为未来的小麦基因组辅助育种提供了一个强有力的平台。

研究人员表示，小麦是第二大粮食作物，在中国具有非常完善的育种体系和谱系记录。研究小麦品种的基因组印记将为未来的育种工作开辟潜在途径。

附：英文原文

Title: Pan-genome bridges wheat structural variations with habitat and breeding

Author: Jiao, Chengzhi, Xie, Xiaoming, Hao, Chenyang, Chen, Liyang, Xie, Yuxin, Garg, Vanika, Zhao, Li, Wang, Zihao, Zhang, Yuqi, Li, Tian, Fu, Junjie, Chitikineni, Annapurna, Hou, Jian, Liu, Hongxia, Dwivedi, Girish, Liu, Xu, Jia, Jizeng, Mao, Long, Wang, Xiue, Appels, Rudi, Varshney, Rajeev K., Guo, Weilong, Zhang, Xueyong

Issue&Volume: 2024-11-27

Abstract: Wheat is the second largest food crop with a very good breeding system and pedigree record in China. Investigating the genomic footprints of wheat cultivars will unveil potential avenues for future breeding efforts1,2. Here we report chromosome-level genome assemblies of 17 wheat cultivars that chronicle the breeding history of China. Comparative genomic analysis uncovered a wealth of structural rearrangements, identifying 249,976 structural variations with 49.03% (122,567) longer than 5kb. Cultivars developed in 1980s displayed significant accumulations of structural variations, a pattern linked to the extensive incorporation of European and American varieties into breeding programmes of that era. We further proved that structural variations in the centromere-proximal regions are associated with a reduction of crossover events. We showed that common wheat evolved from spring to winter types via mutations and duplications of the VRN-A1 gene as an adaptation strategy to a changing environment. We confirmed shifts in wheat cultivars linked to dietary preferences, migration and cultural integration in Northwest China. We identified large presence or absence variations of pSc200 tandem repeats on the 1RS terminal, suggesting its own rapid evolution in the wheat genome. The high-quality genome assemblies of 17 representatives developed and their good complementarity to the 10+ pan-genomes offer a robust platform for future genomics-assisted breeding in wheat.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08277-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08277-0