NESS ZIONA, Israel, July 27,
2017 /PRNewswire/ --
NRGene, the worldwide leader in genomic
assembly and analysis, has delivered a significantly improved
assembly of the sweet potato genome to a group of scientists from
Japan, China, and Korea.
The genome sequencing was performed as part of a project
sponsored by the Trilateral Research Association of Sweet Potato
(TRAS). The consortium consists of the Institute of Sweet Potato
Research at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
Agricultural University, the Rural Development Administration of
Korea, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and
Japan's National Agriculture and
Food Research Organization and Kazusa DNA Research Institute.
"The sweet potato is an essential crop for the world's
communities, especially in Asia
and Africa, providing high
vitamin, mineral and calorie content," says Professor Qingchang
Liu, President of the consortium from China Agricultural
University. "Therefore, we launched an international genome
sequencing project for the sweet potato."
The assembly of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) genome
took less than two months using Illumina technology and NRGene's
DeNovoMAGIC[TM] 3.0, which
leverages the power of Big Data to analyze Illumina reads quickly
and efficiently, delivering complete genomes at the highest level
of accuracy.
The sweet potato is a heterozygote, hexaploid species with 90
chromosomes (2n=6X=90) and a large genome size of 4.8-5.3 pg/2C
nucleus. NRGene's complete genome assembly using provided a size of
2.37 Gbp and scaffolds N50 of 2.15
Mbp. Buscoâ„¢ analysis of the gene's content has demonstrated the
completeness and accuracy of the assembly with more than 94.5% of
the gene sequences are complete and located on the assembled
genome.
"The developments in genetic research over the past couple of
years are startling," said Dr. Ung-Han
Yoon of the Rural Development Administration of Korea.
"Previously, we labored for years to assemble genomes, now NRGene's
tech can deliver essential data on critical crops, such as the
sweet potato, in only a matter of weeks at a fraction of the
cost."
The next step in the sweet potato research is creating a sweet
potato pan-genome, which will allow researchers to see unique and
shared traits among all varieties and be able to breed sweet
potatoes with higher nutritional values, productivity, disease
resistance, etc. The pan-genome will be analyzed using NRGene's
PanMAGIC[TM], which captures
species diversity and delivers a full genomic picture of any
species based on a comparative analysis of multiple varieties.
PanMAGIC[TM] gives a complete
pan-genomic analysis, including genome-to-genome mapping, SNPs,
insertions and deletions of all sizes, SVs and gene PAV/CNV.
"With the genome and ultimately the pan-genome analysis,
breeders can develop more nutritious, high yielding varieties with
fewer resource requirements," says NRGene CEO, Gil Ronen.
About NRGene
NRGene is a genomic Big Data company developing cutting-edge
software and algorithms to reveal the complexity and diversity of
crop plants, animals, and aquatic organisms for supporting the most
advanced and sophisticated breeding programs. NRGene tools have
already been employed by some of the leading seed companies
worldwide as well as the most influential research teams in
academia. http://www.nrgene.com.
NRGene Contact
Amy Kenigsberg
K2 Global Communications
amy@k2-gc.com
+1-913-440-4072 (+7 ET)
+972-9-794-1681 (+2 GMT)