Shifting the life cycle of grain crops from annual to perennial would usher in a new era of agriculture that is more environmentally friendly, resilient to climate change, and capable of soil carbon sequestration. Despite decades of work, transforming the annual grain crop wheat (Triticum aestivum) into a perennial has yet to be realized. Direct domestication of wild perennial grass relatives of wheat, such as Thinopyrum intermedium, is an alternative approach. Here we highlight protein coding sequences in the recently released T. intermedium genome sequence that may be orthologous to domestication genes identified in annual grain crops. Their presence suggests a roadmap for the accelerated domestication of this plant using new breeding technologies.

将粮食作物的生命周期从一年生改为多年生，将迎来一个新的农业时代，它对环境更加友好，对气候变化具有适应力，并且能够固碳。尽管进行了数十年的工作，但尚未实现将一年生的谷物作物小麦（Triticum aestivum）转化为多年生小麦。另一种方法是直接驯化野生的多年生小麦近缘草亲缘种，例如中间Thin草。在这里，我们重点介绍了最近发布的中间轮虫基因组序列中的蛋白质编码序列，这可能与一年生粮食作物中鉴定的驯化基因是直系同源的。他们的存在为使用新育种技术加速驯化该植物提供了路线图。