**6. Completeness of the Current Triticeae Reference Genome Assemblies**

To estimate the completeness of reference genome assemblies of the four test-species, the sizes predicted by each of their assemblies were compared with their estimated genome sizes as derived by flow cytometry. Taking the [9] figure of 7 pg DNA/2C, the conclusion was that the Triticeae assemblies represent at least 85% of their full genome (Table 3). However, adopting the GRCh38.p12 with 1C genome size of 3,257,319,537 bases as the reference, increased the coverage to at least 88%. It should be noted, however, that the data on the size of genome assembly do not inform about its quality, i.e., the correct ordering and orientation DNA contigs. This parameter needs to be assessed using other methods than flow cytometry.

**Table 3.** The estimated level of completeness of the four Triticeae reference genome assemblies.


\* Reference genome assemblies: *H. vulgare* [21], *T. dicoccoides* [22], *T. aestivum* [3], *S. cereale* (Nils Stein, pers. comm.). \*\* Two different values were used for human 1C genome size as a primary reference standard: 3,257,319,537 bp (GRCh38.p12) and 3,423,000,000 bp [9]. \*\*\* Slightly higher value (92%) was estimated by the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium [3] when considering human genome size of 3,253,848,404 bases (Human Genome Assembly GRCh38.p11).
