Revolution in forestry: scientists from Siberia deciphered the genome of Siberian larch

To do this, scientists of the Siberian Federal University (SibFU) used a unique technique.

They managed to decipher the Siberian larch genome completely, developing and applying a unique method of step-by-step Assembly of the genome “in parts”. The data obtained will allow more efficient cultivation of this tree, which has important economic and environmental significance, the press service of the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation reported on Friday.

The technique developed by SFU scientists to decode the larch genome allows relatively fast Assembly of very large genomes on relatively small amounts of computing resources. It is based on the principle of phased Assembly of the genome “in parts”, which allows you to bypass the limitations of modern assemblers (gene collectors) when entering a large amount of data. Thus, the larch genome consists of 12 billion nucleotide bases.

The data obtained, as noted by scientists, lay the Foundation for many studies, up to the creation of a database of forest genetic resources for use in forestry. For example, they will allow for the control of seed for reforestation and the use of trees that are optimal for specific environmental conditions.

“In the future, it is a transition from traditional breeding to genomics. This database will be used to identify the origin of plant material in the fight against illegal logging and illegal trafficking of wood. New knowledge about coniferous genomes is also the Foundation for further research of evolutionary, biochemical and physiological processes in these organisms,” said Konstantin Krutovsky, head of the laboratory of forest genomics and REC genomic research of SibFU.