Beijing, China
August 30, 2011
Headed by CAAS Institute of Vegetable Crops and Flowers, Institute of Oil Crops and BGI-Shenzhen, Brassica rapa Genome Sequencing Project Consortium (BrGSPC) composed of China, UK, ROK, Canada, US, France, and Australia finished a research paper on the genome of the mesopolyploid crop species B. rapa, and on 29 August, 2011, published it in Nature Genetics, an international authoritative journal. Following successful projects on genome sequencing of cucumbers and potatoes, the research on B. rapa is another major outcome of genome research of vegetables through international cooperation led by China, which symbolizes that China has led in genome research of Brassica represented by cabbages in the world.
So far, B. rapa is determined to be the closest species to Arabidopsis. Because of highly similarities in genes of B. rapa and Arabidopsis, B. rapa genome sequencing would be constructive in using rich function information of Arabidopsis, improving crops and promoting the hereditary improvement of B. rapa and other crops of this species
This successful research is a new breakthrough in the field of agriculture in the country. This project is greatly supported by the Department of Basic Research, Department of Rural S&D and Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Department of Education, Science and Culture of the Ministry of Finance, and the Department of Science, Technology and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Topics
Species
