Project description:Aegilops tauschii is the donor of the wheat D subgenome and an important genetic resource for wheat. The assembly of Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 reference genome sequence Aet v4.0 was therefore an important milestone for wheat biology and breeding. The combination of the > 4.2 Gb size of the Ae. tauschii genome and > 84% of recently evolved repeated sequences make sequencing this genome challenging. Here, we report further advances in the development of the Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 genome sequence. Two new genome-wide optical maps were constructed and employed in the revision of pseudomolecules and estimations of gap lengths. Gaps were closed with contigs of single-molecule Pacific Biosciences reads. The number of gaps in Aet v5.0 decreased by 38,899 compared to Aet v4.0. Transposable elements and protein-coding genes were reannotated. The number of high-confidence genes was reduced from 38,886 in Aet v4.0 to 32,980 in Aet v5.0. A nonredundant set of 478 biologically important genes including many of known function in wheat was manually annotated. Sixty-one microRNA precursor and 60 phasiRNA loci were discovered, annotated, and their expression was characterized. Also characterized was expression of other small RNAs, such as hc-siRNAs and tRFs. This upgraded genome sequence will facilitate the use of Ae. tauschii in wheat breeding and biological research. Aegilops tauschii is the donor of the wheat D subgenome and an important genetic resource for wheat. The assembly of Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 reference genome sequence Aet v4.0 was therefore an important milestone for wheat biology and breeding. The combination of the > 4.2 Gb size of the Ae. tauschii genome and > 84% of recently evolved repeated sequences make sequencing this genome challenging. Here, we report further advances in the development of the Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 genome sequence. Two new genome-wide optical maps were constructed and employed in the revision of pseudomolecules and estimations of gap lengths. Gaps were closed with contigs of single-molecule Pacific Biosciences reads. The number of gaps in Aet v5.0 decreased by 38,899 compared to Aet v4.0. Transposable elements and protein-coding genes were reannotated. The number of high-confidence genes was reduced from 38,886 in Aet v4.0 to 32,980 in Aet v5.0. A nonredundant set of 478 biologically important genes including many of known function in wheat was manually annotated. Sixty-one microRNA precursor and 60 phasiRNA loci were discovered, annotated, and their expression was characterized. Also characterized was expression of other small RNAs, such as hc-siRNAs and tRFs. This upgraded genome sequence will facilitate the use of Ae. tauschii in wheat breeding and biological research. Aegilops tauschii is the donor of the wheat D subgenome and an important genetic resource for wheat. The assembly of Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 reference genome sequence Aet v4.0 was therefore an important milestone for wheat biology and breeding. The combination of the > 4.2 Gb size of the Ae. tauschii genome and > 84% of recently evolved repeated sequences make sequencing this genome challenging. Here, we report further advances in the development of the Ae. tauschii acc. AL8/78 genome sequence. Two new genome-wide optical maps were constructed and employed in the revision of pseudomolecules and estimations of gap lengths. Gaps were closed with contigs of single-molecule Pacific Biosciences reads. The number of gaps in Aet v5.0 decreased by 38,899 compared to Aet v4.0. Transposable elements and protein-coding genes were reannotated. The number of high-confidence genes was reduced from 38,886 in Aet v4.0 to 32,980 in Aet v5.0. A nonredundant set of 478 biologically important genes including many of known function in wheat was manually annotated. Sixty-one microRNA precursor and 60 phasiRNA loci were discovered, annotated, and their expression was characterized. Also characterized was expression of other small RNAs, such as hc-siRNAs and tRFs. This upgraded genome sequence will facilitate the use of Ae. tauschii in wheat breeding and biological research.