Publications in Nature and Nature Communications
International Consortium with the Participation of the University of Life Sciences in Lublin Deciphers the Pangenome and Origin of Oat
Oat is a crop of major economic importance, widely used in the production of food, feed, and cosmetics. The main objectives of oat breeding programs include developing cultivars with improved agronomic traits. Genetic research and breeding efforts are generally more straightforward in diploid cereal species such as rice, barley, or maize, but significantly more challenging in polyploid species like wheat or oat. In the case of oat, its complex genetic structure and exceptionally large genome have long hindered scientific investigation.
The idea of sequencing multiple Avena species to build a comprehensive genomic resource originated in 2017 at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany. The concept was developed during a meeting attended by Dr. Nick Tinker (AAFC, Canada), Dr. Tim Langdon (IBERS, UK), Dr. Martin Mascher (IPK, Germany), and Dr. Edyta Paczos-Grzęda (University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland). The initial concept of exome sequencing soon evolved into the development of a pangenome.
As a result, a consortium was established, comprising 17 research institutions from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and Australia. The work was carried out using the resources of individual institutions, without joint international funding.
The research, initiated in 2018 and supported by numerous online discussions, laid the foundation for two landmark publications released on 29th October 2025, in Nature and Nature Communications.
Dr. Martin Mascher, the lead of the research, developed the oat pangenome based on genomic sequences from 33 genotypes and constructed a pantranscriptome using data from 23 lines. In parallel, the team led by Dr. Nick Tinker investigated the origin of hexaploid oat, analyzing 9,000 genotypes collected worldwide.
Poland’s contribution to these studies included sequencing the genome and transcriptome of the Polish oat cultivar Bingo, bred by Hodowla Roślin Strzelce. The analyses also encompassed interspecific populations developed by Dr. hab. Edyta Paczos-Grzęda as part of her research at the Institute of Plant Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology, in collaboration with IBERS Aberystwyth.
Professor Paczos-Grzęda’s expertise in the genetic diversity, phylogenetic relationships, and cytogenetics of Avena species was also applied in the Nature Communications paper. She actively contributed to drafting the initial manuscripts and revising subsequent versions of both publications.
The results represent a turning point for the global oat research community. The new genomic and transcriptomic resources provide an unprecedented foundation for comparative studies, enabling scientists to explore gene function, diversity, and evolutionary history across a wide range of oat genotypes.
Given the complexity of the hexaploid oat genome, the datasets and insights generated by the PanOat project are considered invaluable resources for both fundamental research and applied breeding. Their publication in Nature and Nature Communications underscores the exceptional scientific significance of these achievements.
Original publications:
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Avni R. et al. 2025. A pangenome and pantranscriptome of hexaploid oat. Nature doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09676-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09676-7
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Bekele W.A. et al. 2025. Global genomic population structure of wild and cultivated oat reveals signatures of chromosome rearrangements. Nat Commun 16, 9486. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57895-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57895-3
