Barley Genome Sequencing Looks Promising

Barley Genome Sequencing Looks Promising

Barley Genome Sequencing Looks Promising

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

In a major advance that will unlock the benefits of the mapping of the barley genome—one of the world's most important cereal crops—work conducted and supported by a global consortium of researchers, including USDA scientists has resulted in the most advanced sequencing of the barley genome to date.
The mapping of the barley genome is no easy feat as it contains 5.3 billion letters of genetic code - is one of the largest in cereal crops and twice the size of the human genome. USDA Research Geneticist Dr. Roger Wise shares:

Wise: “We’ve been working together for many, many years. At first with the initial mapping and then some projects which are called express sequence tags which are basically little short beads of RNA which is what makes protein.”

Wise says that new research could mean advances in nutritional content, yields and pest and disease resistance qualities for barley and other crops.

Wise: “Barley has been a model organism for looking at cereal diseases because it has so many. Those diseases cause great suffering for farmers. Most notably the Fusarium Head Blight which actually caused a lot of farmers to go out of business in the upper Mid-West in the past 10 years and also UG-99 Stem Rust.”

Wise says this research provides a detailed overview of the functional portions of the barley genome, revealing the order and structure of most of its 32,000 genes and a detailed analysis of where and when genes are switched on in different tissues and at different stages of development.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Ag Information Network.
 

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