Genome map of strawberry and cocoa

Two groups of scientists said in the journal Nature Genetics published on December 26 that they had decoded the genetic codes of wild strawberries and creolococoa trees respectively, and the new findings would help breeding experts to cultivate higher quality varieties of strawberries and cocoa trees BBSRC and 70 researchers from four other countries have mapped out the complete genome map of wild strawberries It is found that there are about 35000 genes in wild strawberries, which is 1.5 times the number of human genes Most of the genes of wild strawberries also appear in the artificially cultivated strawberry varieties The researchers first divided the genome of wild strawberry into millions of short fragments, then sequenced each fragment, and then combined all the fragments to draw a complete genome map of wild strawberry "For hundreds of years, farmers have generally used hybrid breeding to improve the characteristics of crops The genome map of hybrid strawberries is more complex, but the number of genes in wild strawberries is relatively small, so we can get all the useful genes more easily," said Dan sajie, a researcher of the research team According to Todd mokler of Oregon State University, a researcher of the research team, "scientists can develop fruits that are more resistant to pests, have a sweet smell, are resistant to high temperature, require less fertilizer, last longer, taste better or look better." Another French research team said that they had mapped 76% of the genome of the cocoa tree and identified 29000 genes in the cocoa tree genome, according to which scientists could improve the cocoa tree crops from a genetic perspective The creolo cocoa tree was cultivated more than 3000 years ago, and now produces about 3.7 million tons of cocoa beans a year.