Sequencing the wheat genome – once considered by scientists to be an insurmountable task – has been achieved through a worldwide collaboration of researchers spanning 13 years.

On Friday the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) published a detailed description of the genome of bread wheat in the journal Science.

Obtaining a high-quality reference sequence of bread wheat genome has been an important goal because, as the most widely grown crop worldwide, it is essential for food security. Recent heatwaves in northern Europe, Asia and Canada will have a major effect on wheat production in 2018, and pests, salinity and climate change have wiped out crops. To meet future demands of a projected world population of 9.6bn by 2050, wheat productivity needs to increase by 1.6% each year.

The genome of an organism is similar to a detailed roadmap, containing all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism. Now that scientists and farmers know the genes and factors responsible for traits such as wheat’s yield, grain quality, resistance to fungal diseases, and tolerance to environmental stress, they will be able to produce hardier wheat varieties.

Agriculture Victoria honorary research fellow Prof Rudi Appels contributed to the research and said that, when he joined the IWGSC more than a decade ago, many people thought wheat sequencing was “impossible”.

The wheat genome is more than five times larger than the human genome and it is also more complex, comprising 21 chromosomes (thread-like structures carrying genetic information) originating from three highly similar sub-genomes. This size and complexity presented problems for researchers such as Appels trying to assemble the genome sequence from the short pieces that were the product of sequencing machines.

“It was ambitious but it was important for me that wheat wasn’t seen as being the poor cousin in the area of genome sequencing,” Appels said. “I was always hopeful it could be done.

“I thought wheat deserved to be as well-defined as the human genome and then the technology really developed enormously. Suddenly, what was once literally impossible looked achievable, and I wanted to be there and capture new technologies as they came through. Things that used to take years can now be done overnight.”

He added that the achievement could eventually help to diagnose and treat wheat-related allergies and diseases, and to produce wheat crops with a lower level of the proteins identified as responsible for making some people sick.

The IWGSC used classic physical mapping methods and the most recent DNA sequencing technologies to sequence the bread wheat genome. The sequence data were assembled and ordered along the 21 chromosomes using highly efficient algorithms, and genes were identified with dedicated software programs.

The Science article also presents the precise location of 107,891 genes and of more than 4.7m molecular markers, as well as sequence information between the genes and markers, which contain elements influencing gene expression. The project was coordinated by the IWGSC and the article cites more than 200 authors from 73 universities and private companies worldwide.

A co-author of the article and chief scientist with Inari Agriculture in the US, Dr Catherine Feuillet, said the achievement would have immediate implications for wheat production worldwide.

“I’d wish I’d be at the beginning of my career again because the fun is really starting now, and we can efficiently decipher the biology of our favourite crop,” she said. “I am really thrilled, because after 13 years of efforts with the whole wheat community we have reached our major milestone. The vision we had is now becoming concrete, we have a high-quality reference sequence that can be used to accelerate wheat research and breeding.”