Data from: Chromosome-scale genome assembly of bread wheat's wild relative Triticum timopheevii

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important food crops with an urgent need for increase in its production to feed the growing world. Wheat's wild relative species provide a hugely untapped reservoir of genetic diversity for wheat improvement. Triticum timopheevii (2n = 4x = 28) is a tetraploid wheat wild relative species containing the At and G genomes that has been exploited in many wheat pre-breeding programmes over the last few decades. In this study, we report the generation of a chromosome-scale reference genome assembly of T. timopheevii accession PI 94760 based on PacBio HiFi reads and chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C). The total assembly size was 9.35 Gb with a contig N50 of 42.4 Mb. In total, 166,325 gene models were predicted. Comparative genome analysis confirmed previously known chromosomal translocations and indicated new chromosome rearrangements. Analysis of the genomic distribution of DNA methylation showed that the G genome had on average more methylated bases than the At genome. The G genome was also more closely related to the S genome of Aegilops speltoides than to the B genome of hexaploid or tetraploid wheat. In summary, the T. timopheevii genome assembly provides a valuable resource for genome-informed discovery and cloning of agronomically important genes for future food security.