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Together They Make a Great Dessert

Dec 28, 2010

The genomes of both the woodland strawberry and the cacao tree have come out in Nature Genetics. Florida's Kevin Folta and his colleagues sequenced the strawberry genome to 39x coverage using the Roche 454, Illumina Solexa, and Life Technologies SOLiD platforms. The authors note that the strawberry genome is the smallest plant genome to have been sequenced, other than that of Arabidopsis. In addition, they say their study shows it is possible to use short-read technology to study plant genomes.

Meanwhile, the chocolate team, led by CIRAD's Claire Lanaud, assembled 76 percent of the cacao genome and identified 28,798 protein-coding genes, having sequenced it using 454, Illumina, and Sanger. The researchers say that their "draft genome sequence will facilitate a better understanding of trait variation and will accelerate the genetic improvement of T. cacao."

Our sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News has more on the strawberry genome here.

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