About Brachypodium distachyon (L.) P.Beauv.
Brachypodium distachyon, commonly known as purple false brome or stiff brome, is a grass species native to southern Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia extending east to India. It is related to major cereal grain species: wheat, barley, oats, maize, rice, rye, sorghum, and millet. It has many characteristics that make it an excellent model organism for functional genomics research on temperate grasses, cereals, and dedicated biofuel crops like switchgrass. These useful traits include diploid accessions with a small genome of approximately 270 Mbp, a range of polyploid accessions, small physical size, self-fertility, a short lifecycle, simple growth requirements, and an efficient transformation system. The genome of the diploid inbred line Bd21 of Brachypodium distachyon was sequenced and the results published in Nature in 2010.
