Huazhong Agricultural University completed the first fruit tree genome sequence in China

Huazhong Agricultural University announced on the 21st the whole genome sequence map of sweet orange. After more than one year of hard work, researchers from Horticulture, Genomics, and Bioinformatics at Huazhong Agricultural University cracked the "Cryptogram" of the sweet orange gene, completed the splicing and annotation of the sweet orange genome, and obtained a higher quality sweet orange genome. This is the first complete sequence of fruit tree crops in China and is also the most complete sequence map of sweet orange genomes in the world.

Leader of the project, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chief scientist of the National Citrus Industrial System and Professor of Huazhong Agricultural University, Deng Xiuxin, said: “This indicates that China has built a good scientific research platform on the combination of biotechnology and functional genes and is also promoting citrus varieties. It is of great significance to improve and comprehensively enhance industrial competitiveness."

Orange is the world's largest citrus type, with production accounting for 60% of citrus production worldwide. China is an important citrus center in the world. In 2010, China's total output was 26.45 million tons, making it the world's largest producer of citrus.

Xu Qiang, a doctor at Huazhong Agricultural University, said that oranges are characterized by polyembryony, male and/or female infertility, and high genetic background heterogeneity, hindering the development of genetics and breeding. The complete genome information, as a genetic framework, will provide a scientific basis for citrus genetics and breeding improvement.

Huazhong Agricultural University used the genome-wide shotgun method (WGS) to sequence the sweet orange genome. The data was about 200G in total. The stitched sequence covered 87% of the citrus genome and nearly 30,000 annotated genes were obtained. One.

Deng Xiuxin said that the completion of the sequence map of the orange genome is similar to the “black box” that opened the life of sweet oranges, cracked the “cipher” of the orange genes, and obtained the order of the combinations of genes and related characteristics. For future studies, consciously locking the ripeness, color, sugar content, yield, disease resistance, and other agronomic traits of sweet oranges provides a good basis for the development of better, healthier varieties.

This time, the whole genome sequence map of sweet oranges has made China's basic research on citrus genes in line with international standards. "This will provide more possibilities for the future development of China's biotechnology, and it will also help break some foreign technology blockades against China," said Deng Xiuxin. On the 21st, the Orange Genome website (http://citrus.hzau.edu.cn) has been online and is aimed at domestic experts and scholars to provide free data analysis for academic research.