Whole Exome Capture in Barley

With the avaiabilty of resources for genome-assisted research in barley such as whole genome shotgun assembly and a integrated physical map, studies aiming to assess the genetic diversity can be applied by using resequencing approaches. Targeted sequencing of the protein-coding part of the genome (the exome) offers a means to reduce the heavy sequencing load that would be required for reliable variant identification by resequencing of the whole 5 Gb barley genome. We employed the Roche Nimblegen in-solution hybridization-based sequence capture platform to selectively enrich DNA from a 61.6 Mb sized target region for sequencing. Targets included in the design were predicted genes on the genome assembly of the cultivar Morex as well as publicly available full length cDNA and de novo assembled RNAseq contigs. Coverage analyses of the capture space indicated that the design is able to provide highly specific, substantial, and reproducible enrichment of targeted exons both in cultivated barley and related species.