INTEGRATING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE WHEAT RESEARCH WITH PRETZEL Abstract uri icon

abstract

  • The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) RefSeq v1.0 assembly of bread wheat is a leap forward for understanding wheat genome organisation and composition. Working with genome assemblies at this scale presents significant challenges to many biological researchers, particularly those without bioinformatics training. Here we demonstrate new uses and functionality in Pretzel (1), an online environment for real-time chromosome-scale visualisation and analysis of wheat genomes accessible via a standard web browser. Currently, it allows multiple users to access curated genetic maps and pseudomolecules in wheat as well as related species such as rice and barley. The data model is extremely flexible and can accommodate a wide range of data types including annotations, structural information and QTL. Publication-ready figures can be easily exported in SVG format. Users can upload their own data and immediately relate it to curated genetic maps. Pretzel is currently being used to study syntenic alignments in the 10+ Wheat Genomes Project. Pretzel is available as stand-alone open source software, enabling any research lab to easily make similar kinds of data available via the internet and to connect to other Pretzel instances. Pretzel is a new generation tool which can simplify and decentralise the way cereal researchers share and collaborate around data.

publication date

  • July 2019