Nicotiana benthamiana, also known as benth or benthi, is used often in plant science for experimental models. Now that it has a genome that is almost fully mapped out, research in plant science is predicted to greatly improve, enhancing the development of more effective plant experimental models, shared a release.
N. benthamiana has a rare ability to graft with plants successfully that are not from its family. While researchers were unable to fully explain how the plant is able to do this, the team did find that the chromosomes of the plant were derived from hybridization. Its complex genome structure left researchers puzzled on the sequence information for the regulatory regions of gene expression, as well as the state between the genes.
Through advanced technology, Nagoya University scientists sequenced 95.6% of N. benthamiana‘s total genome. Scientists pieced together 1,668 scaffolds, 21 of which were as large as a whole chromosome. This research helped scientists understand the plant’s complex genome as sequences of interbreeding plants that could no longer be distinguished as their original species. Scientists were able to find the ancient origin of the hybridization: paternal Sylvestres and the maternal Tomentosae plants. The hybridization of these two plants happened approximately 10 million years ago with continued evolution since then. Diversion of N. benthamiana and its relative N. tabacum was between three and seven million years ago.
The research also filled in the blanks of the sequences of the regulatory regions of gene expression. Scientists also learned more about the chromosomal linkage and the number of genes. The new information will help scientists start the application of genome editing technology on this plant.
More details are available in Nagoya University’s news release and in Plant and Cell Physiology.
