Phenotypic diversity of Brachypodium plants. (John Vogel)

A pan-genome, the non-redundant union of all the sets of genes found in individuals of a species, is a valuable resource for unlocking natural diversity. However, the computational resources required to produce a large number of high quality genome assemblies has been a limiting factor in creating plant pan-genomes. In Nature Communications, an international team led by JGI researchers gauged the size of a plant pan-genome using the JGI Plant Flagship Genome of  Brachypodium distachyon, a wild grass widely used as a model for grain and biomass crops. Read more on the JGI website.