A pangenome of the barley wild relative Hordeum bulbosum

Wild plants can contribute valuable genes to their domesticated congeners. Fertility barriers and a lack of genomic resources have hindered the effective use of crop-wild introgressions. Decades of research into barley's closest wild relative, Hordeum bulbosum, a grass native to the Mediterranean basin and Western Asia, have yet to manifest themselves in the release of a cultivar bearing alien genes. To capture the genome diversity of H. bulbosum, we collected and sequenced 207 diploids and 53 autotetraploid accessions from various major habitats worldwide. For diploid H. bulbosum, we selected three samples from Italy, Greece, and Spain, along with one isolate from Libya, which exhibited closer similarity to autotetraploid samples. Additionally, we included three parent accessions used to create numerous introgression lines (IL lines). We sequenced ten H. bulbosum samples comprising four diploid and six autotetraploid.