10月18日，中华猕猴桃（Actinidia chinensis）“红阳”的基因组测序研究文章在国际权威杂志《自然—通讯》（Nature Communications）在线发表。该项研究对广泛栽培的中华猕猴桃品种“红阳”的基因组进行分析，发现猕猴桃进化过程中3次基因组倍增历史事件，揭示猕猴桃富含维生素C、类胡萝卜素、花青素等营养成分的基因组学机制，为猕猴桃品质改良和遗传育种奠定了重要基础。
中华猕猴桃基因组计划由猕猴桃基因组国际合作组织（International Kiwifruit Genome Consortium, IKGC）历时3年完成。该国际组织由合肥工业大学刘永胜教授和美国康乃尔大学汤姆逊植物研究所科学家费章君博士共同领导，参与单位还包括四川大学、四川省自然资源研究院、湖北省农科院、中国科学院广西植物研究所、香港中文大学、复旦大学、西南大学、美国爱达荷大学、美国农业部等国内外高校和科研机构。
猕猴桃，又称“奇异果”，被誉为“水果之王”和“维C之王”。它含有亮氨酸、苯丙氨酸、异亮氨酸、酪氨酸、丙氨酸等10多种氨基酸，以及丰富的矿物质，包括丰富的钙、磷、铁，还含有胡萝卜素和多种维生素，对保持人体健康具有重要的作用。猕猴桃起源于中国，大约100年前在新西兰开始驯化和栽培。目前已在中国、新西兰、意大利、智利等10多个国家大规模种植，成为风靡全球的营养最为丰富的高端水果之一。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
NAT COMMUN doi:10.1038/ncomms3640
Draft genome of the kiwifruit Actinidia chinensis
Shengxiong Huang,Jian Ding,Dejing Deng,Wei Tang,Honghe Sun, Dongyuan Liu,Lei Zhang,Xiangli Niu, Xia Zhang,Meng Meng,Jinde Yu,Jia Liu,Yi Han,Wei Shi, Danfeng Zhang,Shuqing Cao,Zhaojun Wei, Yongliang Cui, Yanhua Xia,Huaping Zeng
The kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop with remarkably high vitamin C content. Here we report the draft genome sequence of a heterozygous kiwifruit, assembled from ~140-fold next-generation sequencing data. The assembled genome has a total length of 616.1?Mb and contains 39,040 genes. Comparative genomic analysis reveals that the kiwifruit has undergone an ancient hexaploidization event (γ) shared by core eudicots and two more recent whole-genome duplication events. Both recent duplication events occurred after the divergence of kiwifruit from tomato and potato and have contributed to the neofunctionalization of genes involved in regulating important kiwifruit characteristics, such as fruit vitamin C, flavonoid and carotenoid metabolism. As the first sequenced species in the Ericales, the kiwifruit genome sequence provides a valuable resource not only for biological discovery and crop improvement but also for evolutionary and comparative genomics analysis, particularly in the asterid lineage.
