Scientists sequence avocado genome
As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have now sequenced the avocado genome.
As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have now sequenced the avocado genome. Researchers at the University of Buffalo, Texas Tech University, and the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Mexico, used computerized sequencing equipment to decipher the DNA of several varieties of avocado, including the popular Hass variety found in U.S. grocery stores.
The research revealed duplicate genes suggesting that the green-fleshed fruits had adapted to various diseases in the past and revealed insights into the origins of the Hass avocado. The study reveals for the first time that the popular Hass avocado inherited about 61% of its DNA from Mexican varieties and about 39% from Guatemalan ones. The research also provides vital reference material for learning about the function of individual avocado genes, and for using genetic engineering to boost productivity of avocado trees, improve disease resistance, and create fruit with new tastes and textures.
The study also uses genomics to investigate the family history of the avocado, known to scientists as Persea americana. “We study the genomic past of avocado to design the future of this strategic crop for Mexico,” said Luis Herrera-Estrella, president’s distinguished professor of Plant Genomics at Texas Tech University. “The long life cycle of avocado makes breeding programs difficult, so genomic tools will make it possible to create faster and more effective breeding programs for the improvement of this increasingly popular fruit.”
The avocado belongs to a relatively small group of plants called magnoliids, which diverged from other flowering plant species about 150 million years ago. The new research supports—but does not prove—the hypothesis that magnoliids, as a group, predate the two dominant lineages of flowering plants alive today, the eudicots and monocots. If this is right, it would not mean that avocados themselves are older than eudicots and monocots, but that avocados belong to a hereditary line that split off from other flowering plants before the eudicots and monocots did.