NRGene and Japan’s Kazusa DNA Research Institute fully reveal the complex genome of strawberry using illumina data

NRGene, a globally recognized leader in genomic analysis, is the first ever to assemble the complex genome of a commercially grown strawberry.

Most plant, animal, and human genomes are diploid – containing two variants from each gene. The strawberry genome contains eight nearly identical copies of each gene, making the accurate phasing of each something that has never been done before – until NRGene’s DeNovoMAGICTM 3.0.

The octoploid, heterozygous strawberry genome was assembled using reads produced on Illumina sequencing technology and assembled by NRGene’s cloud-based DeNovoMAGICTM 3.0 software package in only two weeks.

“It’s exciting to see how NRGene’s analysis, combined with data from Illumina sequencers, can be used to quickly and affordably assemble complex genomes, like that of the strawberry,” said Ryan Rapp, Associate Director, Agrigenomics for Illumina. “We hope that this technology will make genomics accessible to agricultural researchers worldwide, helping to improve the food supply to make it more sustainable and efficient.”

NRGene’s DeNovoMAGICTM 3.0 delivers complete, highly accurate genome assemblies in the form of long, phased sequences using Illumina-based reads. As more genomes are generated, NRGene’s PanMAGICTM is used to compare the complete genome sequences of multiple individual samples to capture the broad genomic diversity, better pinpointing positive traits across all varieties.

“With the data from NRGene, strawberry breeders will be able to accelerate the release of better performing strawberry varieties, creating hardier, more disease-resistant varieties with longer shelf lives,” says Sachiko Isobe, head of the plant genomics and genetics laboratory at Japan’s Kazusa DNA Research Institute.

NRGene has delivered the first bread wheat, Emmer wheat, and durum wheat genomes; dozens of new maize, soybean, cotton, and canola genomes; and is delivering more accurate versions of previously mapped genomes built on older, more inefficient technologies.

“The strawberry assembly demonstrates that even the most complex genomes can be mapped quickly and accurately,” says Gil Ronen, CEO of NRGene. “The ultimate value in our technology is that it can be deployed to analyze and assemble any genome across all species.”

Detailed results are available: http://nrgene.com/strawberry-results/

The project was done in cooperation with Japan’s Kazusa DNA Research Institute and supported in part by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.