Bhubaneswar: Mangroves, which are located in Bhitarkanika and . is found in some other parts of Orissa, except the Sundarbans in West Bengal and the country’s marshy intertidal estuary areas, can survive high levels of salinity.
Intrigued by this adaptive mechanism, scientists have studied mangrove species in depth and found that its genes could help develop drought and salinity-tolerant crops in the future.
Research team consisting of: Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar from the group of directors Ajay Parida and M Parani SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu has sequenced the genome of Avicennia marina (grey mangrove, called bani in Odia) – one of the highly salt-tolerant mangrove species found in all mangrove habitats in the country.
This species grows best in 75% seawater and tolerates over 250% seawater. It is capable of a rare occurrence of extracting up to 40% of salt through salt glands in the leaves.
“We have sequenced nearly 99% of the genomes of the species and linked them to 31 chromosomes of the species. This is the first report of high-quality genome assembly for any mangrove species reported so far,” Parida said.
The study is published in a recent issue of communication biology (a Nature group of magazines). This is a high-level genome assembly for the species as the researchers have combined 456.6 mega bases (Mb) of the estimated 462.7 Mb marina genome (98.7% genome coverage) across 31 chromosomes.
MB is the unit of length of DNA fragments.
Researchers have identified 31,477 protein-coding genes of this species.
“We have created a group of salinity-tolerant genes, named salinome, which includes 3,246 salinity-responsive genes and 614 of them have been characterized for salinity tolerance. These genes were used to develop salinity-tolerant crops. Parida, who has been working on mangrove genetics and genomics for more than 25 years, said.
He noted that the genome sequencing data mangroves Will be of immense help to researchers around the world in future.
Agricultural productivity is affected globally due to limited availability of water and salinization of soil and water.
Globally, salinity is prevalent in about 900 million hectares (with an estimated 6.73 million hectares in India). This causes a loss of US$27 billion annually.
Sometimes saline water enters the field and damages the land and crop.
He said the genomic resources generated in the study will pave the way for researchers to study the potential of the identified genes for the development of drought and salinity-tolerant varieties of important crop species of the coastal region.
Mangroves act as a natural defense barrier to protect shorelines and provide habitat for a variety of terrestrial organisms. Many marine fish species depend entirely on mangroves for their breeding, spawning and hatching grounds.
Intrigued by this adaptive mechanism, scientists have studied mangrove species in depth and found that its genes could help develop drought and salinity-tolerant crops in the future.
Research team consisting of: Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar from the group of directors Ajay Parida and M Parani SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu has sequenced the genome of Avicennia marina (grey mangrove, called bani in Odia) – one of the highly salt-tolerant mangrove species found in all mangrove habitats in the country.
This species grows best in 75% seawater and tolerates over 250% seawater. It is capable of a rare occurrence of extracting up to 40% of salt through salt glands in the leaves.
“We have sequenced nearly 99% of the genomes of the species and linked them to 31 chromosomes of the species. This is the first report of high-quality genome assembly for any mangrove species reported so far,” Parida said.
The study is published in a recent issue of communication biology (a Nature group of magazines). This is a high-level genome assembly for the species as the researchers have combined 456.6 mega bases (Mb) of the estimated 462.7 Mb marina genome (98.7% genome coverage) across 31 chromosomes.
MB is the unit of length of DNA fragments.
Researchers have identified 31,477 protein-coding genes of this species.
“We have created a group of salinity-tolerant genes, named salinome, which includes 3,246 salinity-responsive genes and 614 of them have been characterized for salinity tolerance. These genes were used to develop salinity-tolerant crops. Parida, who has been working on mangrove genetics and genomics for more than 25 years, said.
He noted that the genome sequencing data mangroves Will be of immense help to researchers around the world in future.
Agricultural productivity is affected globally due to limited availability of water and salinization of soil and water.
Globally, salinity is prevalent in about 900 million hectares (with an estimated 6.73 million hectares in India). This causes a loss of US$27 billion annually.
Sometimes saline water enters the field and damages the land and crop.
He said the genomic resources generated in the study will pave the way for researchers to study the potential of the identified genes for the development of drought and salinity-tolerant varieties of important crop species of the coastal region.
Mangroves act as a natural defense barrier to protect shorelines and provide habitat for a variety of terrestrial organisms. Many marine fish species depend entirely on mangroves for their breeding, spawning and hatching grounds.
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