Shenzhen deciphered the genome of Begonia plants, and published research results in international authoritative journals

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Nandu News Reporter Zhang Xiaoling Led by the Xianhu Botanical Garden of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Urban Management and Comprehensive Law Enforcement and the Shenzhen Huada Institute of Life Sciences, the genome research results of begonia plants, "Genomes shed light on the evolution of Begonia, a mega-diverse genus", were officially published in the international authoritative journal "New Phytologist" in the field of botany.

According to reports, Dr. Li Lingfei, Dr. Dong Shanshan, Dr. Li Na of the Plant Research Center of Xianhu Botanical Garden, Dr. Chen Xiaoli, Associate Researcher Fang Dongming, and Dr. Guo Xing of the BGI Life Science Research Institute are the co-first authors of the paper. In addition, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden, Nanning Botanical Garden, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Singapore Botanical Garden, Beijing Institute of Botany, Kunming Institute of Botany, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Nanjing Agricultural University, South China Agricultural University, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Belgium Ghent University and other domestic and foreign scientific research institutions participated in the research. Huan Liu, a researcher at BGI's Institute of Life Sciences, and Shouzhou Zhang, a researcher at Xianhu Botanical Garden, are co-corresponding authors. The research work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program and the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Urban Management and Comprehensive Law Enforcement.

In the newly released research results, the research team completed the whole genome assembly of four species of begonia plants, such as begonia loranthoides, begonia masoniana, begonia darthvaderiana, and begonia peltatifolia. Shallow genome sequencing of 74 globally representative species was completed. At the same time, the study also found that the ancestors of Begonia species underwent a unique genome-wide doubling event about 35 million years ago, which made an important contribution to the evolution of plant diversity and shade tolerance adaptation of Begonia. The research results provide new insights for revealing the formation of diversity and adaptive evolution of Begonia species, and provide an important reference for the study of post-genomics of Begonia plants.

It is understood that Begonia is a super large genus in the plant kingdom, with extremely rich species, with a total of more than 2,000 species. This genus belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, and the closest relationship with it is the cucurbitaceae of the same purpose, and the common winter melon, pumpkin, cucumber, loofah, gourd, watermelon, etc. are all famous fruits and vegetables of the cucurbitaceae family. Begonia is a typical yin plant, mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas near the equator, most species live in shady places such as understory, canyons, waterfalls, and caves. In addition, Begonia is one of the most valuable horticultural ornamental flowers with diverse leaf types and leaf spots, rich flower colors, and both leaf viewing and flower viewing.

Since 2008, the Xianhu Botanical Garden of the Municipal Chengguan and Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau has collected and conserved more than 400 species of begonia plant germplasm resources, becoming one of the units with the largest collection of species in this taxa in China. Xianhu Botanical Garden makes full use of the advantages of collecting begonia plant resources, relying on the Shenzhen Key Laboratory of South Asia Tropical Science to carry out systematic scientific research and a series of popular science exhibition activities, providing an important learning and exchange platform for professionals and ordinary citizens.