Sequencing and exploitation of the Brassica A genome

十字花科作物是全世界健康的人类饮食和农业经济的主要贡献者。它们包括油菜(甘蓝型油菜)和蔬菜，如卷心菜、花椰菜、花椰菜(甘蓝)和大白菜和萝卜(甘蓝)。英国提供了全球5%的油菜籽产量，油菜籽油具有重要的营养特性，具有作为生物燃料或工业应用的可再生资源的潜力。十字花科蔬菜富含维生素、矿物质和有助于预防癌症的化合物。尽管Brassica作物在英国很重要，但由于其基因组成的复杂性，进一步开发其潜力的努力受到阻碍。这是他们祖先杂交形成的结果，导致了他们基因组的扩增。对于甘蓝和油菜，这导致在密切相关的物种中，例如被广泛研究的拟南芥，每个独特的基因通常都有两个拷贝。在甘蓝型油菜中，情况更糟，因为这一物种是最近甘蓝和油菜杂交的结果，导致基因数量额外翻了一番。幸运的是，所有栽培的十字花科植物都有密切的亲缘关系，并且它们之间的基因组结构非常保守。这意味着，只要有必要的数据解释和信息共享资源，任何一个物种的基因组结构和组成的详细知识都可以很容易地在其他物种中利用。一个全球财团已经启动了油菜基因组测序项目，目前正在韩国、澳大利亚、德国、加拿大、美国和其他地方开展活动。将被测序的纯合子基因型(大白菜赤府-401)的全部10条染色体已被该联盟成员采用进行测序。韩国正在对其中两个进行测序，并正在制定对其余部分进行测序的建议。在所有情况下，将采用的方法和标准都已达成一致。我们已经与中国和美国的科学家建立了联盟，利用合作伙伴提供的互补专业知识对两条染色体进行测序。此外，我们将开发资源，以促进对白菜型油菜整个基因组序列的开发，我们预计将于2009年底提供。这些措施包括对基因组序列进行系统注释，从油菜中获得序列以识别其基因组的相应区域，以及一个数据库系统，该系统具有量身定做的显示器，以增强不同用户群体利用序列数据进行研究和改良英国重要油菜作物的能力。

Brassica crops are major contributors to healthy human diet and agricultural economies worldwide. They include oil crops such as oilseed rape (B. napus) and vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (B. oleracea) and Chinese cabbage and turnip (B. rapa). The UK provides 5% of worldwide production of rapeseed, the oil from which has important nutritional properties and has potential as a biofuel or a renewable resource for industrial applications. Brassica vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and compounds that help protect against cancer. Despite the importance of Brassica crops in the UK, efforts to develop their potential further are hampered by the complexity of their genetic composition. This is the result of hybrid formation in their ancestry, resulting in amplification of their genomes. For B. oleracea and B. rapa, this results in there typically being 2 copies of each unique gene in closely related species, such as the widely studied Arabidopsis thaliana. In B. napus, the situation is worse still as this species is the result of a very recent hybridization between B. oleracea and B. rapa, resulting in an additional doubling of gene numbers. Fortunately, all of the cultivated Brassica species are closely related and genome structure is very highly conserved between them. This means that detailed knowledge of genome structure and composition in any one species can be readily exploited in the others, providing the necessary data interpretation and information-sharing resources are put in place. A worldwide consortium has initiated the Brassica rapa Genome Sequencing Project, with ongoing activity in Korea, Australia, Germany, Canada, USA and elsewhere. All 10 chromosomes of the homozygous genotype to be sequenced, (Chiifu-401, a Chinese cabbage) have been adopted for sequencing by members of the consortium. The sequencing of two of them is underway in Korea and proposals are being developed to sequence the remainder. In all cases, the methods and standards to be adopted have been agreed. We have established an alliance with scientists in China and the USA, exploiting the complementary expertise available from the partners, to sequence two chromosomes. In addition, we will develop resources to facilitate the exploitation of the entire B. rapa genome sequence, which we expect to be available at the end of 2009. These include systematic annotation of the genome sequence, obtaining sequences from oilseed rape to enable the identification of corresponding regions of its genome, and a database system with displays tailored to enhance the ability of the various user communities to exploit the sequence data for research and the improvement of the Brassica crops of importance in the UK.