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CAHNRS Department of Horticulture Genomics Lab

Pear Research

pears

Community

The global pear research and industry community has organized itself over the last five years and developed an integrated collaboration to reinvigorate research and development activities. In a landmark development the US pear industry supported a systems based approach to address the long-standing issues plaguing the pear industry. These developments culminated in a brainstorming session at the International Pear Symposium in Argentina (2010) and recently the US pear industry catalyzed the organization of an International Pear Workshop in summer of 2011. The USA pear community has initiated drafting a white paper on its research and development priorities over the next 20 years. Synopsis of the pear white paper or the research roadmap.

Pear Genome Sequencing Consortium

The blueprint for all biological processes in a pear is coded by its genome comprised of approximately 500 million nucleotides. However, due to its enormous size and complexity, it is impossible to access this information all at once. The information can only be accessed in small increments which necessitates piecing together the fragmented information. To solve the genomic puzzle we have captured the genome in 24,000 manageable pieces called BAC clones. Each clone covers about 145,000 nucleotides each. In order to fit the genomic pieces in a continuum, we have generated sequence using multiple next generation sequencing platforms that include 454 Roche and PacBio instruments. Random sequences generated de novo using this platform will be combined with sequences generated from BAC clones to develop a draft assembly of the pear genome. We currently have a 6x draft available.

The pear genome sequencing consortium consists of WSU researchers Amit Dhingra and Ananth Kalyanaraman; Todd Einhorn, Oregon State University; Herman Silva, Universidad de Chile, Chile; Lee Ann Meisel, Universidad Andres Bello, Chile; Elisabeth Chevreue, Charles-Eric Durel, Francois Laurens, Lydie Bouveir INRA, France; Ricardo Velasco, IASMA, Italy.