Date Palm Genome in Saudi Arabia

Date palm is a cultivated plant species with agricultural and economic importance. In 2008, A new Initiatives to sequence Date palm genome started in KACST in collaboration with CAS.

 We start up the Date Palm Genome Project to promote the genomics research on the species. In the first stage, we constructed the chloroplast genome and mitochondrial genome of Date palm. Both of the cp genome and mt genome are a circular molecule, and their length are 158,462 bp and 715,001 bp respectively. In the second stage, 67,651 date palm gene models were constructed and two large scale transcriptomic researches were performed on eight tissues of date palm and seven developmental and ripening stages of date palm fruit, respectively. In these two researches, we identified a serials important metabolic pathway and enzymes that related to development and sugar/starch metabolisms. In the third stage, we do the genome assembly for an elite variety (Khalas), which is 605.4Mb in size and covers > 90% of the genome (~671Mb) and > 96% of its genes (~ 41,660 genes). Genomic sequence analysis demonstrates that date palm experienced a clear genome-wide duplication. Genetic diversity analysis indicates that its stress resistance and sugar metabolism-related genes tend to be enriched in the chromosomal regions where the density of single-nucleotide polymorphisms is relatively low. Now, we are working on the genetic maps. These resources will facilitate the study of evolution, genome-wide duplication, sex determination, and comparative genome analysis which will provide information for crop. improvement.