Wang May

Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572024, China
Author    Correspondence author
Genomics and Applied Biology, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/gab.2024.15.0002
Received: 20 Nov., 2023    Accepted: 22 Dec., 2023    Published: 05 Jan., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Wang M., and Fang J., 2024, A new chapter in sugarcane genomics: constructing the R570 reference genome and the future of agricultural biotechnology, Genomics and Applied Biology, 15(1): 8-11 (doi: 10.5376/gab.2024.15.0002)

A paper titled "The Complex Polyploid Genome Architecture of Sugarcane" by A.L. Healey, O. Garsmeur, J.T. Lovell, et al., from institutions including the Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, CIRAD, and the University of Queensland, was published in the journal Nature on March 27, 2024. This research successfully constructed a polyploid reference genome for the sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) variety R570. As the highest-yielding crop worldwide, sugarcane is a crucial source of sugar and biomass production. Despite certain successes in adapting to new environments and pathogens through traditional breeding methods, the increase in sugarcane's sugar yield has plateaued in recent years. By generating a polyploid reference genome for the R570 variety, this study fills a gap in the lack of high-quality reference genomes for modern sugarcane varieties, marking an important step forward for biotechnological advancements in sugarcane.

Complex polyploid; Genome architecture; Sugarcane