Canadian Saskatchewan Scientists Sequence Camelina Genome

Scientists from Canadian Saskatchewan group Genome Prairie have released the DNA sequence of Camelina, an oilseed crop popular in Europe and is increasingly recognized as a valuable industrial oil platform.

Reno Pontarollo, CEO of Genome Prairie said "The completion of the Camelina genome sequence marks an important milestone that will enable local businesses to be more innovative in developing Camelina-based value-added industrial bioproducts."

An interesting feature that scientists pointed out is that the gene complement appears to be almost three times larger than that of Arabidopsis thaliana, the closely related species widely used as a model in laboratory settings. The most important use of the genome sequence will be for current and future breeding applications.