Soybean genome sequencing enters the "sprint phase"

The U.S.-Japan joint research project team reported in the latest issue of Nature magazine that 85% of the soybean genome has been sequenced and that sequencing has entered the “sprint phase”.

As a member of the project team, the Japan Institute of Physical Chemistry reported that researchers extracted genes from soybean seedlings about three weeks after germination.
To date, researchers have completed the sequencing of 950 million soybean genome base pairs, which accounts for approximately 85% of the 1.11 billion base pairs of the soybean genome.

According to Japan’s physics and chemistry research, there are more than 10,000 species of legumes in the world, and the soybean genome map will become the key to people’s understanding of such plants. New knowledge will likely be used to improve soybean varieties and increase global food supply.

Through years of efforts, scientists have mapped the genome maps of various crops such as rice, potatoes, and cabbage.