Researchers from the Institute of Subtropical and Mediterranean Horticulture "La Mayora" (IHSM), Alicia Talavera, Noé Fernández Pozo, Antonio Matas and Iñaki Hormaza along with Aureliano Bombarely of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP) published a reference genome of the pine tree ( Annona cherimola ). The study was published in the journal Plants, People, Planet.

The pine cone is a perennial fruit native to the neotropics and valued since pre-Columbian times by different Native American civilizations. It belongs to the family Annonaceae, the most numerous of the minoid clades, sister of the clades of the eudicotas and monocotyledons of the angiosperms.

The main commercial producer country of pine nuts is Spain, which has about 3,000 ha, followed by Peru and Chile. Although pine cone is grown mainly in domestic gardens in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, this crop is also cultivated on a small scale in other countries such as Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, United States (California), Israel, Italy, Morocco, Portugal (Madeira) and South Africa.

Despite its excellent organoleptic and nutritional qualities, this crop is still underutilized, although it has a clear niche of expansion in regions of subtropical climate. To date, no previous significant genomic information is available for this species, which would be a key tool to optimize breeding programs and advance the study and conservation of their existing genetic diversity.

In this study, different sequencing approaches are combined to develop a reference genome of this diploid species at the chromosomal level, with completeness of 95.6%. A total of 41,413 protein-encoding genes were identified, many of them related to secondary metabolism, defense mechanisms, stress response and development.

Source: Agrolink