Summary Thlaspi arvense (field pennycress) is being domesticated as a winter annual oilseed crop capable of improving ecosystems and intensifying agricultural productivity without increasing land use. It is a selfing diploid with a short life cycle and is amenable to genetic manipulations, making it an accessible field‐based model species for genetics and epigenetics. The availability of a high‐quality reference genome is vital for understanding pennycress physiology and for clarifying its evolutionary history within the Brassicaceae. Here, we present a chromosome‐level genome assembly of var. MN106‐Ref with improved gene annotation and use it to investigate gene structure differences between two accessions (MN108 and Spring32‐10) that are highly amenable to genetic transformation. We describe non‐coding RNAs, pseudogenes and transposable elements, and highlight tissue‐specific expression and methylation patterns. Resequencing of forty wild accessions provided insights into genome‐wide genetic variation, and QTL regions were identified for a seedling colour phenotype. Altogether, these data will serve as a tool for pennycress improvement in general and for translational research across the Brassicaceae.

Field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) is a new winter annual cash cover crop with high oil content and seed yield, excellent winter hardiness, early maturation, and resistance to most pests and diseases. It provides living cover on fallow croplands between summer seasons, and in doing so reduces nutrient leaching into water sources, mitigates soil erosion, and suppresses weed growth. The first ever genomewide association study (GWAS) was conducted on a pennycress diversity panel to identify marker trait associations with important seed size and composition related traits. The entire population was phenotyped in three total environments over 2 yr, and seed area, length, width, thousand grain weight, total oil, and total protein were measured post-harvest with specialized high-throughput imaging and near-infrared spectroscopy. Basic unbiased linear prediction values were calculated for each trait. Seed size traits tended to have higher entry mean reliabilities (0.76-0.79) compared with oil content (0.51) and protein content (0.37). Genotyping-by-sequencing identified 33,606 high quality genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) that were coupled with phenotypic data to perform GWAS for seed area, length, width, thousand grain weight, total oil, and total protein content. Fifty-nine total markertrait associations were identified revealing genomic regions controlling each trait.The significant SNPs explained 0.06-0.18% of the total variance for that trait in our population. A list of candidate genes was identified based on their functional annotations and characterization in other species. Our results confirm that GWAS is an efficient strategy to identify significant marker-trait associations that can be incorporated into marker-assisted selection pipelines to accelerate pennycress breeding progress.

Thlaspi arvense (field pennycress) is being domesticated as a winter annual oilseed crop capable of improving ecosystems and intensifying agricultural productivity without increasing land use. It is a selfing diploid with a short life cycle and is amenable to genetic manipulations, making it an accessible field-based model species for genetics and epigenetics. The availability of a high quality reference genome is vital for understanding pennycress physiology and for clarifying its evolutionary history within the Brassicaceae. Here, we present a chromosome-level genome assembly of var. MN106-Ref with improved gene annotation, and use it to investigate gene structure differences between two accessions (MN108 and Spring32-10) that are highly amenable to genetic transformation. We describe non-coding RNAs, pseudogenes, and transposable elements, and highlight tissue specific expression and methylation patterns. Resequencing of forty wild accessions provides insights into genome-wide genetic variation as well as QTL regions for flowering time and a seedling color phenotype. Altogether, these data will serve as a tool for pennycress improvement in general and for translational research across the Brassicaceae.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) or scab is a devastating disease of barley that severely reduces the yield and quality of the grain. Additionally, mycotoxins produced by the causal Fusarium species can contaminate harvested grain, resulting in food safety concerns and further economic losses. In the Upper Midwest region of the United States, Fusarium graminearum is the primary causal agent, and deoxynivalenol (DON) is the main mycotoxin associated with Fusarium infection. Deployment of resistant cultivars is an important component of an integrated strategy to manage this disease. Unfortunately, few good sources of FHB resistance have been identified from the evaluation of large collections of Hordeum germplasm. Over the past 25 years, many barley mapping populations have been developed with selected resistance sources to identify the number, chromosomal position and allelic effect of quantitative trait loci (QTL) contributing to FHB resistance and DON accumulation. To consolidate the genetic data generated from 14 mapping studies that included 22 bi‐ or tri‐parental mapping populations and three genome‐wide association (GWAS) mapping panels, a consensus map was constructed that includes 4145 SNP, SSR, RFLP and AFLP markers. A meta‐analysis based on this consensus map revealed 96 QTL for FHB resistance and 57 for DON accumulation scattered across the barley genome. Many of the QTL explained a low percentage (<10%) of variation for the traits and were often found significant in only one or a few environments in multi‐year/multi‐location field trials. Moreover, many of the FHB/DON QTL mapped to chromosomal positions coincided with various agro‐morphological traits that could influence the level of disease (e.g. heading date, height, spike density, and spike angle), raising the important question of whether the former are true resistance factors or are simply the result of pleiotropy with the latter. Considering the magnitude of effect, consistency of detection across environments and independence from agro‐morphological traits, only three of 96 QTL for FHB and five of 57 QTL for DON were considered priority targets for marker‐assisted selection (MAS). In spite of the challenge for having a limited number of useful QTL for breeding, genomic selection holds promise for increasing the efficiency of developing FHB‐resistant barley cultivars, an essential component of the overall management strategy for the disease.

Introduction Donor service area was removed from kidney and pancreas allocation system in the United States on March 15, 2021 in favor of a distance based policy to provide geographic equity to access to transplantation. The policy change was introduced at a time when ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic cases were declining following the first delta wave. Methods In this Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients based study, deceased donor kidney transplant recipients between March 15 and December 2 of 2019, 2020 and 2021 were compared representing pre‐policy change, pre‐COVID cohort; pre‐policy change, early COVID cohort; and post‐policy change, late COVID cohort. Results There were 11336, 11808, and 12914 kidney transplants in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 cohorts, respectively. Proportion of kidney transplants increased from 8798 (78%) to 9496 (80%) to 11152 (86%), and decreased from 2538 (22%) to 2312 (20%) to 1762 (14%) within and beyond 250 nautical miles in subsequent years. Median distance between donor and transplant hospital increased (73 vs. 63 vs. 119 nautical miles, P < .001) and mean cold ischemia time increased (18.1 vs. 17.8 vs. 19.9 h, P < .001). Access to transplantation did not change for various racial groups ( P = .07), pediatric patients ( P = .29), dialysis vintage of >5 years ( P = .21), veterans ( P = .07) and decreased for those with calculated PRA of 99% and 100% ( P < .001). Rate of kidney discard (19.6% vs. 20.4% vs. 24%) remained high. Although there were numerical increases in transplants from donors with donation after circulatory death, donor acute kidney injury, kidney donor profile index >85% and donor age >60 years in successive years, rates of kidney discard also increased proportionally. Conclusion Improvement in the access to transplantation following the policy change was attenuated by the concurrent prevalence of the COVID‐19 pandemic.