title: From genome to gene: a new epoch for wheat research?
abstract: Genetic research for bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), a staple crop around the world, has been impeded by its complex large hexaploid genome that contains a high proportion of repetitive DNA. Recent advances in sequencing technology have now overcome these challenges and led to genome drafts for bread wheat and its progenitors as well as high-resolution transcriptomes. However, the exploitation of these data for identifying agronomically important genes in wheat is lagging behind. We review recent wheat genome sequencing achievements and focus on four aspects of strategies and future hotspots for wheat improvement: positional cloning, 'omics approaches, combining forward and reverse genetics, and epigenetics.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Plant Cell Engineering and Germplasm Innovation, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Plant Cell Engineering and Germplasm Innovation, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shubin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Plant Cell Engineering and Germplasm Innovation, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, P.R. China. Electronic address: xiagm@sdu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guangmin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D017343:Genes, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D012106:Research; D059386:Reverse Genetics; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: agronomically important genes; strategies for gene identification; wheat; whole-genome sequence