Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a diploid plant with a large haploid genome of 5.3 gigabases (Gb) distributed amongst seven chromosomes (1H-7H).
A genome-wide physical map of barley (cultivar Morex) was built by high-information-content fingerprinting and contig assembly of 571,000 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones. After assembly, the physical map presented a cumulative length of 5.0 Gb representing more than 95% of the barley genome (ref Ruvini et al (2013) A sequence-ready physical map of barley anchored by two million SNPs The Plant Journal (in Press)). The genome shows abundance of repetitive DNA, with 84% of the sequence present as mobile elements, most of them retrotransposons.
The transcribed portion of the barley genome annotated thus far, was identified using RNAseq data obtained in this project, arising from eight important tissues/stages of development, along with 28,592 full-length cDNAs. In total, 79,379 transcript isoforms were identified and comparison with the genomes of other cereals Sorghum, rice and Brachypodium revealed homology in 26,159 of the transcripts (so-called High Confidence genes).
Strong evidence of alternative splicing, premature termination codons and novel transcriptionally active regions indicate significant and high-levels of post-transcriptional regulation. Extensive single-nucleotide variation was also identified. All these elements provide excellent resources for exploitation in biology-driven applications.
