Durum Wheat Genome

Dr. Roberto Tuberosa co-chairs the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding of the Wheat Initiative. He was involved in the sequencing of wild emmer and durum wheat. He has been working on durum wheat genomics applied to durum breeding, with an emphasis on the dissection of the QTLome for resistance to drought,and disease resistance. He organized the three international congresses “From Seed to Pasta” in 2008/15/18. He collaborates with seed companies to develop new durum cultivars.Dr. Luigi Cattivelli, Director of the CREA Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics in Fiorenzuolad’Arda and former Director of the Centre for Cereal Research in Foggia, co-chairs the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding. He was involved in the sequencing of wild emmer and bread wheat genomes and coordinated the sequencing of the durum wheat genome of cv. Svevo. He has collaborated with seed companies to develop wheat and barley breeding.Dr. Aldo Ceriotti, Director of the Institute on Plant Biology and Biotechnology (CNR) in Milano, was involved in the sequencing of wild emmer and durum wheat. His research focuses on the synthesis of proteins in wheat with particular emphasis on glutenins and gliadins and their effects on bread quality. He has acted as President of the European Plant Science Organization (EPSO) and he has been actively involved in the activities of the Italian Platform “Plants for the Future”.Dr. Assaf Distelfeld,Director of the Institute of Evolution and Professor at the Dept. of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, has coordinated the sequencing of wild emmer and has been involved in sequencing of durum wheat and bread wheat. His research focuses on wild cereal germplasm, especially wild emmer wheat, to understand the molecular mechanisms of wheat domestication. He also identified genetic factors with potential to increase wheat nutritional value andadaptation to various stress conditions.Dr. Curtis Pozniak, Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and Director of the Crop Development Centre and member of the Scientific Board of the Wheat Initiative, coordinates the  10+ Wheat Pangenome project. He has been involved in the sequencing of wild emmer durum wheat and coordinated the bread wheat sequencing. He has also been involved in the sequencing of the barley genome. He coordinates the largest publicly funded wheat breeding project with a major focus on quality and disease resistance.

• The wild emmer wheat genome.- The durum wheat genome.- Genome assembly completeness of the durum wheat genome as a function of PacBio HiFi sequencing coverage.- Gene expression analysis in durum wheat.- The durum wheat miRNAome.- Application of hexaploid bread wheat SNP arrays for the genotyping of tetraploid durum wheat.- Genetic resources for trait mapping in durum wheat.- Evolution of TILLING as a useful tool for durum wheat functional studies and breeding programs.- Meta-analysis of QTL in durum wheat: state of the art and perspectives in the post-genome era.- Genomics-enhanced pyramiding of alleles for abiotic stress tolerance in durum wheat.- Etc.