Tracing the ancestry of modern bread wheats

Abstract

For more than 10,000 years, the selection of plant and animal traits that are better tailored for human use has shaped the development of civilizations. During this period, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) emerged as one of the world's most important crops. We use exome sequencing of a worldwide panel of almost 500 genotypes selected from across the geographical range of the wheat species complex to explore how 10,000 years of hybridization, selection, adaptation and plant breeding has shaped the genetic makeup of modern bread wheats. We observe considerable genetic variation at the genic, chromosomal and subgenomic levels, and use this information to decipher the likely origins of modern day wheats, the consequences of range expansion and the allelic variants selected since its domestication. Our data support a reconciled model of wheat evolution and provide novel avenues for future breeding improvement.