Soya bean genome sequenced
Long wait is finally over ,The draft of the complete genome of the soya bean (Glycine max) has been released by the Joint Genome Institute and its associates at the International Conference on Legume Genomics and Genetics in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Soya bean is pretty popular as crop plant for humans and animal food crop, which is rich in oil and protein.Another important property which makes Soya immensely useful is the its use as a feedstock for bio diesel — in which vegetable oil is chemically modified to power diesel engines.
The entire sequencing of genome took around 3 years with and estimated cost of nearly US$20 million,using the famous ’shotgun’ approach pioneered by Craig Venter.( To read more about DNA sequencing click HERE)
Shotgun involves cutting (with restriction enzymes) large DNA fragments into shorter DNA fragments. and later the fragmented DNA is cloned into a DNA vector, usually a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC), and amplified in Escherichia coli.
The amplified DNA can then be purified from the bacterial cells .These short DNA fragments purified from individual bacterial colonies are then individually and completely sequenced and assembled electronically into one long, contiguous sequence by identifying 100%-identical overlapping sequences.
The problem with plant genome sequencing is mainly comes from the fact that the genomes of many crop plants are very large and highly duplicated as this is one main reason why plant biologists work with simple genome like that of Arabidopsis thaliana as models.
Randy Shoemaker, based at the US Department of Agriculture in Iowa, and a team leader on the soya bean project,once famously quoted that soya should never be sequenced because of its complexity and this could be the reason why sequencing of soya genome lagged behind RICE genome ,which came out in 2005.In spite of many previous doubts ,scientists believe the sequence came out pretty easily.
Now that whole genome sequence of this plant is complete, giving the farmers and bio diesel designers the ability to design soya bean according to their needs and specifications.It is also believed that time taken for creation of new variety will also be reduced considerably.
“Now we can identify all the genes involved in the oil synthesis in the seed,” –Gary Stacey.
This should help to improve the production of oil. “Ideally you use no water, no fertilizer, and the lousiest soil possible,” — Dan Rokhsar.
Farmers who rely more on growing soya for human or livestock consumption can now make use of the available genome information to breed better varieties with higher protein content.
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