Wild and weedy relatives of domesticated crops harbor genetic variants that can advance agricultural biotechnology. Here we provide a genome resource for the wild plant green millet (Setaria viridis), a model species for studies of C₄ grasses, and use the resource to probe domestication genes in the close crop relative foxtail millet (Setaria italica). We produced a platinum-quality genome assembly of S. viridis and de novo assemblies for 598 wild accessions and exploited these assemblies to identify loci underlying three traits: response to climate, a ‘loss of shattering’ trait that permits mechanical harvest and leaf angle, a predictor of yield in many grass crops. With CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing, we validated Less Shattering1 (SvLes1) as a gene whose product controls seed shattering. In S. italica, this gene was rendered nonfunctional by a retrotransposon insertion in the domesticated loss-of-shattering allele SiLes1-TE (transposable element). This resource will enhance the utility of S. viridis for dissection of complex traits and biotechnological improvement of panicoid crops.

驯化作物的野生和杂草近缘种含有可以推进农业生物技术的基因变异。在这里，我们提供了野生植物绿谷子（ Setaria viridis ）（C ₄禾本科植物研究模式物种）的基因组资源，并利用该资源来探测近缘作物谷子（ Setaria italica ）的驯化基因。我们生产了S. viridis的白金级基因组组装和 598 个野生种质的从头组装，并利用这些组装来识别三个性状背后的基因座：对气候的响应、允许机械收获和叶角的“破碎损失”性状、许多禾本科作物产量的预测指标。通过 CRISPR-Cas9 基因组编辑，我们验证了Less Shattering1 ( SvLes1 ) 是一种其产物控制种子破碎的基因。在S. italica中，通过在驯化的破坏性丢失等位基因SiLes1-TE （转座元件）中插入逆转录转座子，使该基因失去功能。该资源将增强S. viridis在解析复杂性状和对恐慌作物进行生物技术改良方面的效用。