From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 2, April 2022.
Adapted from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Research featured in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (119: e2115640118; http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115640118) highlights the progress of plant genomics and includes a roadmap for the enormous task of sequencing the genomes of plants worldwide.
The article, titled "Green plant genomes: What we know in an era of rapidly expanding opportunities," underscores the significance of this massive endeavor.
"Nearly half a million species of plants inhabit the Earth today and the secrets to understanding nearly everything about them is hidden in the sequences of their DNA (the plant genome)," said W. John Kress, senior author of the paper and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian. "Plants are the foundation of environments across the planet and deciphering their genomes will be a game changer for understanding nearly all aspects of our own lives, from improving foods and medicines to inspiring artists and enhancing ecosystem stability."
The article highlights the contributions of Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (aka GGI-Gardens), based at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and Botanical Research Institute of Texas (FWBG|BRIT) and funded by the Smithsonian Institution. Co-author of the article, Morgan Gostel, is the director of GGI-Gardens and has managed the international partnership since it began in 2015. To date, GGI-Gardens has supported the collection and preservation of genomic tissue from more than 10,000 species of plants.
“The biggest challenge to jumpstarting an ambitious genome sequencing project like the Earth BioGenome Project is getting access to high-quality tissue from almost half a million species of plants on Earth,” Gostel said. “With our current technology and expectations for where sequencing technologies are headed in the future, high-quality plant tissue, either from well-preserved or fresh collections is critical.”
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