With a genome of just over 500 million letters of genetic code, Populus trichocarpa was sequenced eight times over to attain the highest quality standards. Poplar was chosen as the first tree DNA sequence decoded because of its relatively compact genetic complement, some 50 times smaller than the genome of pine, making the poplar an ideal model system for trees.
The poplar genome, divided into 19 chromosomes, is four times larger than the genome of the first plant sequenced four years ago, Arabidopsis thaliana.
Thus far, researchers have revealed poplar’s genome to be about one-third heterochromatin, that is, regions of chromosomes thought to be genetically inactive, which should provide shortcuts to important regulatory features.
Genome Project Notes
The Populus genome release 1.1 is a part of the ongoing Populus genome project. The initial analysis of the poplar draft genome was published in Science. The current assembly includes approximately 7.5X in small insert end-sequence coverage. Additional mapping and sequencing is ongoing.
Our goal is to make the genome sequence of Poplar widely and rapidly available to the scientific community. We endorse the principles for the distribution and use of large scale sequencing data adopted by the larger genome sequencing community and urge users of this data to follow them. It is our intention to publish the work of this project in a timely fashion and we welcome collaborative interaction on the project and analyses as appropriate.
Genome Reference(s)
Tuskan GA, Difazio S, Jansson S, Bohlmann J, Grigoriev I, Hellsten U, Putnam N, Ralph S, Rombauts S, Salamov A, Schein J, Sterck L, Aerts A, Bhalerao RR, Bhalerao RP, Blaudez D, Boerjan W, Brun A, Brunner A, Busov V, Campbell M, Carlson J, Chalot M, Chapman J, Chen GL, Cooper D, Coutinho PM, Couturier J, Covert S, Cronk Q, Cunningham R, Davis J, Degroeve S, Déjardin A, Depamphilis C, Detter J, Dirks B, Dubchak I, Duplessis S, Ehlting J, Ellis B, Gendler K, Goodstein D, Gribskov M, Grimwood J, Groover A, Gunter L, Hamberger B, Heinze B, Helariutta Y, Henrissat B, Holligan D, Holt R, Huang W, Islam-Faridi N, Jones S, Jones-Rhoades M, Jorgensen R, Joshi C, Kangasjärvi J, Karlsson J, Kelleher C, Kirkpatrick R, Kirst M, Kohler A, Kalluri U, Larimer F, Leebens-Mack J, Leplé JC, Locascio P, Lou Y, Lucas S, Martin F, Montanini B, Napoli C, Nelson DR, Nelson C, Nieminen K, Nilsson O, Pereda V, Peter G, Philippe R, Pilate G, Poliakov A, Razumovskaya J, Richardson P, Rinaldi C, Ritland K, Rouzé P, Ryaboy D, Schmutz J, Schrader J, Segerman B, Shin H, Siddiqui A, Sterky F, Terry A, Tsai CJ, Uberbacher E, Unneberg P, Vahala J, Wall K, Wessler S, Yang G, Yin T, Douglas C, Marra M, Sandberg G, Van de Peer Y, Rokhsar D
The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray).
Science. 2006 Sep 15;313(5793):1596-604. doi: 10.1126/science.1128691