A humble weed native to the Mediterranean and Middle East and viewed by gardeners in some countries as an invasive pest could hold the secret to boosting yields of cereals and biofuels, scientists hope.

In a paper published on Wednesday by the British journal Nature, biologists from both sides of the Atlantic said they had unravelled the genome of Brachypodium distachyon, a small wild grass that offers big promise in plant biotechnology.

Also called purple false brome, this native of the Mediterranean and Middle East is a plant of zero commercial or agricultural importance.

But its tiny, easily manipulated genetic code makes it ideal to serve as a lab testbed for understanding more complex, valuable grasses.

"It has one of the smallest known genomes among grasses, it's easy to work with and is physically small," said one of the investigators, Todd Mockler, an assistant professor of botany at Oregon State University.

"We can grow 50,000 plants in a normal-sized laboratory and do larger experiments.

"The plants are easy to grow, easy to study and have a short lifecycle. And what we learn from Brachypodium will be of critical value in work with other plants of agronomic importance."

Brachypodium is the first member of a sub-family of grasses called Pooideae - a category that includes wheat, barley, forage crops and switchgrass, which is of major interest for biocrop production - to be sequenced.