As part of an international study, Genoscope participated in the sequencing of the garden pea genome. That work, published in Nature Genetics, will contribute to improving the agronomic characteristics of this grain legume.
The genome of the garden pea (Pisum sativum) is particularly large, close to half again as large as that of humans (4.5 vs 3.2 giga base pairs), and particularly complex, with a large amount of highly-repetitive sequences. To assemble it, an international team (Australia, Canada, United States, France, New Zealand, Czech Republic) including researchers from Genoscope and INRA had to order several billion short DNA sequences.
By using phylogenetic and paleogenomic approaches, the team was able to show that major genomic rearrangements happened during the plant's evolution. Notably, the Pisum genus, which includes the garden pea, has undergone intense genetic evolution, an aspect surely related to the extensive growth of its genome.
Having the pea genome available in its entirety will enable a better understanding of the molecular basis of characteristics that hold particular interest in agronomy, for example, disease resistance, yield regularity or nutritional value. That knowledge will improve variety development, particularly in the settings of climate change and high demand for vegetable proteins.