Biotech Updates

Sugar Cane and Sorghum: Two Very Similar Genomes

March 14, 2008

A new finding by researchers from CIRAD (Centre Internationale de la Researche et Developpment) will facilitate sugarcane genomic work. This came about when CIRAD's researchers, who pioneered the exploitation of similar, simpler species such as rice and sorghum, recently confirmed the strong similarity of the sorghum and sugarcane genomes. The sorghum genome contains ten times fewer chromosomes than that of sugarcane and the complete sequence has been available since autumn 2007.

These results will make it easier to pinpoint useful agronomic and pest and disease resistance genes in the sugarcane genome, using the sorghum genomic sequence. 

For details, please see:  http://www.cirad.fr/en/actualite/communique.php?id=894