China Produces World's First Genetic Map of Tibetan Barley

Chinese scientists have sequenced the entire genome of the Tibetan highland barley, an achievement that can help cultivate better breeds and increase yields of Tibet's staple food. The genome mapping project, launched in 2012 by researchers with Tibet's Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences and BGI Tech Solutions in Shenzhen has produced the world's first genetic map of highland barley.

Nyima Tashi, deputy dean of the Lhasa-based Academy and chief scientist of the research project said "We have completed a draft sequence of an old barley variety native to the Tibet plateau." The study assembled 3.89 billion of the estimated total of 4.5 billion base pairs of the chemicals that make up DNA in the highland barley genome, and included 39,197 protein coding genes. Highland barley, or "ne" in Tibet, has been grown on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for nearly 4,000 years. It makes up 70 percent of all cereal crops in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region where it is used to make tsamba, beer, flour, cakes, and noodles.

In 2013, BGI Tech Solutions and Carlsberg Laboratory jointly announced their partnership to decode the barley chromosome 6 with the aim to provide a valuable resource for the development of new barley cultivars.

For more information, read http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-03/03/content_17318500.htm and http://bgitechsolutions.com/bgi-tech-and-carlsberg-laboratory-joined-collaboration-for-the-dna-sequencing-of-barley-chromosome-6/.