Epigenomic variation across a polyploid wheat diversity collection

Wheat has been domesticated into a large number of agricultural environments and a key question is what drives the ability of crops to rapidly adapt. To address this question, we survey genotype and DNA methylation across a bread wheat landrace collection representing global wheat genetic diversity. We identify independent variation in methylation, genotype and transposon copy number. These three sources of variation all have the potential to contribute to altered gene function and adaptation to different agricultural environments. Methylation and transposon diversity could therefore be used together with sequence polymorphisms in breeding strategies.