Major Scientific Discoveries
-
Solve the complex genome assembly problem of Longjing tea cultivar and reveal the origin and evolution of the tea plant (Prof. Yang Yajun’s team at Tea Research Institute)
The tea plant is an important cash crop characterized by a large genome, high heterozygosity, and high species diversity. The research team assembled a 3.26-Gb highquality chromosome-scale genome for the ‘Longjing 43’ cultivar of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Genomic resequencing of 139 tea accessions from around the world was used to investigate the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of ... -
Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS-coronavirus 2 (Prof. Bu Zhigao’s team at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) causes the infectious disease COVID-19. SARSCoV-2 is thought to have originated in bats; however, the intermediate animal sources of the virus are completely unknown. Bu Zhigao’s team investigated the susceptibility of ferrets and animals in close contact with humans to SARS-CoV-2. They found that SARS-CoV-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pig... -
A rationally engineered cytosine base editor retains high on-target activity while reducing both DNA and RNA of-target effects (Prof. Zuo Erwei’s team at Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen)
Cytosine base editors (CBEs) use the rat apolipoprotein-B-editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-1 APOBEC1 (rAPOBEC1), a cytidine deaminase binding to singlestranded DNA (ssDNA) and is fused to nCas9, to convert cytosine to thymine. CBEs ofer a powerful tool for correcting point mutations, yet their DNA and RNA of-target activities have caused concerns in biomedical applications. We described scree... -
Fast and accurate long-read assembly wtdbg2 (Prof. Ruan Yu’s team at Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen)
The third-generation DNA sequencing technologies have changed the approach to genomics and brought up the research of largescale population genome assembly. Genome assembly is the first step in genomics and also a touchstone for new technologies. Existing long-read assemblers require thousands of central processing unit hours to assemble a human genome and are being outpaced by sequencing technolo... -
Haplotype-resolved genome analyses of a heterozygous diploid potato (Prof. Huang Sanwen’s team at Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen)
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the most important tuber crop worldwide. To accelerate genetic improvement in potato, several projects have been initiated to redomesticate potato from a tuber-propagated, tetraploid crop into a seed-propagated, inbred-line-based diploid crop, which requires a better understanding of the potato genome. Huang Sanwen’s team reported the first haplotype-resolved assem... -
Genome-wide selection and genetic improvement during modern maize breeding (Wang Haiyang’s team at Biotechnology Research Institute)
The success of modern maize breeding derives from the development of hybrid maize breeding programs begun in the first half of the 20th century. Since then, much of the seven-fold increase in yield can be attributed to the tolerance of increased planting density and an increased density. To investigate the genetic impacts of selection during breeding and identify the key genes contributing to adap... -
A tripartite ssDNA mycovirus from a plant pathogenic fungus is infectious as cloned DNA and purified virions (Prof. Guo Lihua’s team at Institute of Plant Protection)
Here, we describe a tripartite circular single-stranded (ss) DNA mycovirus, named Fusarium graminearum gemytripvirus 1 (FgGMTV1). The genome of FgGMTV1 comprises three circular ssDNA segments (DNA-A, DNA-B, and DNA-C). Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analyses showed that FgGMTV1 is nested within the family Genomoviridae. We also constructed the first infectious DNA clones of a DNA mycovirus. ... -
MAPK-dependent hormonal signaling plasticity contributes to overcoming Bacillus thuringiensis toxin action in an insect host (Prof. Zhang Youjun’s team at Institute of Vegetables and Flowers)
The arms race between entomopathogenic bacteria and their insect hosts is an excellent model for decoding the intricate coevolutionary processes of host-pathogen interaction. The research team demonstrated that the MAPK signaling pathway is a general switch to trans-regulate diferential expression of aminopeptidase N and other midgut genes in an insect host, diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella),...