Researchers have efficiently sequenced, assembled and annotated the genome of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), one of the well known and iconic tree species on Earth.
Coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) on U.S. Route 199 in California, the United States. Image credit score: Acroterion / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Coast redwood is an evergreen tree reaching as much as 115.5 m (379 ft) in peak and dwelling as much as 2,200 years.
Also often called coastal redwood and California redwood, it the one dwelling species of the genus Sequoia within the household Cupressaceae.
Coast redwood is taken into account ‘Endangered’ by the IUCN Red List. Its pure vary is discovered primarily alongside the northern California Pacific Ocean shoreline, though coast redwood bushes have been planted all around the world.
Each of its two closest family members, large sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and daybreak redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), can be the one dwelling member of its genus.
Coast redwood forests have been extensively logged (almost 95% of virgin forest) following immigration of Europeans into California.
There is presently sturdy curiosity in accelerating the return of old-growth forest traits together with a various forest construction with large-stature bushes.
Restoration and conservation efforts rely critically on the power to measure and monitor genetic variation.
The means to interrogate genomic areas underneath choice and estimate adaptive genetic range requires genetic markers from protein-coding areas of the genome.
Such markers haven’t existed for coast redwood and may solely be developed following transcriptome or whole-genome sequencing.
“Our work on the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes will enable us to develop modern genetic tools that can be used in the restoration and conservation of these ecologically important tree species,” stated Professor David Neale, a researcher within the Department of Plant Sciences on the University of California, Davis.
Nearly 9 occasions bigger than the human genome, the redwood genome has 26.5 billion base pairs of DNA, and it’s hexaploid, that means redwoods have six units of chromosomes. Humans have 3 billion base pairs of DNA and are diploid, with two units of chromosomes.
The redwood genome can be the second largest genome sequenced.
When evaluating the coast redwood genome sequence to that of different conifers, the researchers discovered a whole lot of gene households distinctive to the coast redwood. Many are genes that assist the bushes reply to and battle stress, resist illness and restore after harm.
“This ambitious scientific research provides a critical foundation for Save the Redwoods League and the entire redwoods community,” stated Dr. Joanna Nelson, director of science and conservation planning for Save the Redwoods League.
“It will ultimately help us understand the incredible range of responses that coast redwood and giant sequoia species have exhibited in the face of climate change and how native genetic diversity has informed these responses.”
“The Redwood Genome Project helps us see, for the first time, the full genetic diversity that has allowed these forests to adapt and survive for millennia — and could protect them against a suite of conditions they have never experienced.”
The group’s outcomes have been revealed within the journal G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics.
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David B. Neale et al. Assembled and annotated 26.5 Gbp coast redwood genome: a useful resource for estimating evolutionary adaptive potential and investigating hexaploid origin. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, publihsed on-line December 14, 2021; doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab380