Sequencing of wheat chromosome 3A

The Roche/454 sequencing technology was used to sequence the wheat chromosome 3A at 7-8 fold coverage. The syntenic relationships between wheat and the sequenced model genomes were used to create the high-density gene map. Fine scale patterns of collinearity between wheat and model genomes revealed the complex mosaic of relationships marked by rearrangements, gene duplications and deletions indicative of high rate of structural turnover in the wheat genome compared to smaller genomes of model grass species. We showed that the accelerated rate of evolution in wheat is not only restricted to genome architecture but also is manifested in the increased rates of coding sequence, gene intron-exon structure and alternative splicing evolution.