Mitochondrial genome sequences from wild and cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare).

The mitochondrial genome of barley was similar to those of other grass species in terms of gene content, but the configuration of the genes was highly differentiated from that of other grass species. Mitochondrial genome sequencing is essential for annotating the barley nuclear genome; our mitochondrial sequencing identified a significant number of fragmented mitochondrial sequences in the reported nuclear genome sequences. Little polymorphism was detected in the barley mitochondrial genome sequences, which should be explored further to elucidate the evolution of barley.