Sequencing projects
The long-term goal of the IWGSC is to obtain a high quality reference genome sequence of the bread wheat genome from cv. Chinese Spring anchored to the genetic maps with automated and manual annotation and data integration.
In an effort to achieve the long-term goal of a high quality sequence and provide tools and resources to breeders along the way, the IWGSC has established a multi-pronged approach for sequencing projects. This includes low coverage survey sequencing of all 21 chromosomes using 454 and or Illumina sequencing technologies on sorted chromosomes and chromosome arms, BAC end sequencing of clones used to construct the individual physical maps, and BAC by BAC sequencing projects designed to provide high quality sequences of the individual chromosomes. Three major international Genome sequencing centers are working with the IWGSC: Genoscope (France), The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC, United Kingdom), and BGI (China). A central repository for publicly available sequences is being established by the URGI (France). The IWGSC projects are complemented by individual efforts for producing whole genome sequences (e.g., the UK SNP) project.