The recent advances in the development of next generation DNA sequencing technologies are opening the prospect for tackling large, complex genomes such as wheat and barley in a reasonable time frame and for tractable cost. It is timely to discuss the use of these technologies to sequence the wheat and barley genomes. To this end, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (www.wheatgenome.org) and the International Barley Sequencing Consortium (www.barleygenome.org) will convene an international workshop on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genome sequencing. The goals of the workshop are to:
- Provide an overview of the wheat and barley genome structure
- Identify the requirements and challenges of sequencing wheat and barley
- Discuss the strategies, successes, and failures of completed animal and economically-important plant genome sequencing projects
- Discuss the results of ongoing wheat and barley pilot studies using new technologies alone or in combination with Sanger sequencing technology
- Gain input from the developers of new sequencing technology platforms on how to apply their technologies to sequence large, complex genomes, such as those of wheat and barley
- Discern needs and opportunities in bioinformatics to handle these projects
- Discuss national and international funding opportunities
- Determine whether the new technologies can be used to sequence the genomes in the near future and which projects should be developed to evaluate this possibility
- Establish a strategic roadmap for sequencing the wheat and barley genomes in the next few years.
This workshop will bring together international experts in the human and agriculturally-important genome sequencing projects, developers of genome sequencing technologies, scientists with extensive knowledge of the structure and organization of the wheat and barley genomes, representatives of international genome sequencing centers interested in de novo sequencing of plant species, as well as representatives of governmental funding agencies. The workshop will last two days and will result in a summary document that will be distributed to all participants as well as others interested in advances in wheat and barley genomics.
