The hidden complexity of the Montmorency tart cherry genome
Since Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, Michigan State University researchers were searching for the genes associated with tart cherry trees that bloom later in the season to meet the needs of a changing climate. They started by comparing DNA sequences from late-blooming tart cherry trees to the sequenced genome of a related species, the peach. However, in a surprise to the researcher, the genetic discrepancies between the species outweighed the similarities. This led the team to create the first annotated Montmorency tart cherry genome and identify the DNA segments that code for each gene.
“I naively thought that this would be an easy endeavor; we would simply sequence a few early and late-blooming cherry trees and align the sequences to the peach genome and get an answer in just a few weeks,” said Courtney Hollender, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at MSU. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.”
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