Major Research Findings were Published on Cell by Research Group of School of Life Science and the Partners

On May 28, the paper “Pan-genome analysis based on 33 high-quality assemblies provides insights into hidden genomic variations in rice” was published onCellby Sichuan Agricultural University, Institutes of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei University. Professor Du Huilong is the co-first author of this paper.

Structural variations (SVs) and gene copy number variations (gCNVs) have contributed to crop evolution and domestication. Up to now, there has been no accurate reports related to the SV and gCNV.

The researchers selected 33 diverse rice accessions with highly representative genetic backgrounds, 31 of which were performed long fragment PacBio sequencing, high-quality genome assembly and gene annotation. They also systematically conducted genomic comparative analysis of 33 high-quality genomes, identifying lots of SVs and gCNVs hidden before. Their analyses explore SV distributions and formation mechanisms among Asia subpopulations, reveal the significant correlation between the SVs and gCNVs and the changes of gene expression, and find many complex superior alleles variations related to agronomic traits, all of which identifies the important role of the SV and gCNV in controlling rice agronomic traits.

Graduated from Institutes of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huilong Du is the high-level talent introduced by our school. At present, the software development of genome assembly is one of the main directions of high-end research work in this research group.