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Volume 544 Issue 7651, 27 April 2017

Domesticated some 10,000 years ago, barley has been a key crop since the dawn of agriculture. In this week’s issue, Nils Stein and colleagues in the International Barley Sequencing Consortium report the sequencing and assembly of a reference genome for this important grain. They produced the genome for Hordeum vulgare L. by combining hierarchical shotgun sequencing of bacterial artificial chromosomes, genome mapping on nanochannel arrays and chromosome-scale scaffolding with conformation capture sequencing. The result is the first comprehensive, completely ordered assembly of the pericentromeric regions of a Triticeae genome — and it reveals that each of barley’s seven chromosomes is divided into three compartments. The authors also sequenced and examined genetic diversity in the exomes of 96 European elite barley lines with a spring or winter growth habit, highlighting the potential utility of the sequence for cereal genomics and breeding programmes.

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  • Planetariums are not just for education, or even astronomy: they could display all sorts of data, if only scientists thought to use them, says Tom Kwasnitschka.

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  • Oldfield mice and deer mice differ in their parental care, most dramatically in the behaviour of fathers. A study reveals the genetic and neuronal contributions to variation in parental care. See Article p.434

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  • Biological molecules are often imaged by attaching fluorescent labels — but only a few label types can be used at a time. A method that could smash the record for the number of labels that can be used together is now reported. See Letter p.465

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  • Malnutrition is a global problem. With population and consumption set to rise over the coming decades, achieving food security will require action on many fronts.

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  • Fertile land is at a premium in Egypt. Reclaiming the desert is repeatedly proposed as the solution, but should the country be doing more with what it already has?

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  • Our insatiable appetite for red meat is bad for our health and for the planet. Sustainable alternatives are in the pipeline, but will they convince us to make the switch?

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