CHOULET, F., ALBERTI, A., THEIL, S., GLOVER, N., BARBE, V., DARON, J., PINGAULT, L., SOURDILLE, P., COULOUX, A., PAUX, E., LEROY, P., BELLEC, A., GASPIN, Ch., ŠAFÁŘ, Jan, DOLEŽEL, Jaroslav, ROGERS, J., VANDEPOELE, K., MAYER, K., WINCKER, P., FEUILLET, C. Structural and functional partitioning of bread wheat chromosome 3B. Science. 2014, 345(6194). ISSN 0036-8075. E-ISSN 1095-9203

We produced a reference sequence of the 1-gigabase chromosome 3B of hexaploid bread wheat. By sequencing 8452 bacterial artificial chromosomes in pools, we assembled a sequence of 774 megabases carrying 5326 protein-coding genes, 1938 pseudogenes, and 85% of transposable elements. The distribution of structural and functional features along the chromosome revealed partitioning correlated with meiotic recombination. Comparative analyses indicated high wheat-specific inter- and intrachromosomal gene duplication activities that are potential sources of variability for adaption. In addition to providing a better understanding of the organization, function, and evolution of a large and polyploid genome, the availability of a high-quality sequence anchored to genetic maps will accelerate the identification of genes underlying important agronomic traits.