Researchers Release Draft Sequence of Date Palm Genome

Scientists at the Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in Qatar have successfully mapped the draft genome of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), an important agricultural crop in Middle East and Northern Africa. The scientists hope that the development will boost efforts to breed improved, disease-resistant date palm varieties.

The team used genome shotgun sequencing to map the genome of the date palm variety Khalas. Joel Malak, genomics laboratory director at WCMC, said that by using this approach, the researchers were able to develop a relatively unbiased view of the gene space of the entire date palm plant at a fraction of the cost and in a much shorter period of time. The shotgun approach takes advantage of the lower repetitive DNA in the date palm gene regions. According to results, the genome is around 500 million basepairs long.

Malak said that sequencing work was actually a proof-of-concept study. The original goal was to establish and validate the capabilities of the genomics lab for large-scale genomics projects. The draft genome is available to the public at http://qatar-weill.cornell.edu/research/datepalmGenome/download.html

Read the original article at http://news.med.cornell.edu/wcmc/wcmc_2009/05_01b_09.shtml