In a study which appears in Nature Biotechnology researchers sequenced the DNA from 242 unique accessions of Aegilops tauschii gathered over decades from across its native range – from Turkey to Central Asia.
In a study which appears in Nature Biotechnology researchers sequenced the DNA from 242 unique accessions of Aegilops tauschii gathered over decades from across its native range – from Turkey to Central Asia.
Population genome analysis led by Dr Kumar Gaurav from the John Innes Centre revealed the existence of a distinct lineage of Aegilops tauschii restricted to present day Georgia, in the Caucuses region – some 500 kilometers from the Fertile Crescent where wheat was first cultivated – an area stretching across modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
First author of the study in Nature Biotechnology, Dr Kumar Gaurav said, “The discovery of this previously unknown contribution to the bread wheat genome is akin to discovering the introgression of Neanderthal DNA into the out of Africa human genome,”
“It is most likely to have occurred though a hybridisation outside the Fertile Crescent. This group of Georgian accessions form a distinct lineage that contributed to the wheat genome by leaving a footprint in the DNA.”
Read more at: John Innes Centre
