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Quinoa is harvested in the highlands in Puno region, south-eastern Peru. The crop could help improve global food security. Photograph: ICT/Tomas Munita

The near-complete genome of quinoa was unveiled on Wednesday by scientists who say the grain cultivated centuries ago by Incas in the Andes could help feed a hungry world.

Quinoa is incredibly resilient, and can grow in poor or salty soils, said Mark Tester, a professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and leader of the consortium of scholars that decoded the plants genome.

It could provide a healthy, nutritious food source for the world using land and water that currently cannot be used.

Other major crop plants have been bred for centuries or, more recently, genetically modified to combine optimal traits to boost yield and bolster resistance to pests and climate change. Now, scientists can delve into the quinoa genome as well.

Quinoa has great potential to enhance global food security, Tester said.

The grain thrives at any altitude up to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) above sea level, in conditions that would leave most food plants struggling. Some strains grow well at temperatures up to 38 degrees.

Best known outside its native region as a health food, quinoa is gluten-free and contains essential amino acids, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

It also scores lower than other crops on the glycaemic index, a measure of how quickly foods raise blood sugar levels a major concern for those with diabetes.

Yet global consumption remains incidental compared with wheat, rice, barley or corn less than 100,000 tonnes a year compared with hundreds of millions of tonnes for each of the other major grains and cereals.

One problem with quinoa is that the plant naturally produces bitter-tasting seeds, Tester explained. The bitterness a natural defence against birds and other pests comes from chemical compounds called saponins. The process for removing these chemicals is labour-intensive and costly, and requires ample use of water.

Another constraint is that quinoa plants tends to have small seed heads and long stalks that can collapse in strong wind or heavy rain.

Despite its agronomic potential, quinoa is still an underutilised crop, with relatively few active breeding programmes, Tester and three dozen colleagues wrote in the journal Nature.

First grown by humans thousands of years ago in the high plateau around Lake Titicaca in the Andes, quinoa is still barely domesticated, the researchers said.

Testers team has already pinpointed genes, including one that controls the production of saponins, that could be altered through breeding or gene editing to enhance quality and yields.

With this new knowledge of quinoa DNA, we can quickly and easily select plants that do not produce bitter substances in the breeding process, said co-author Robert van Loo, a scientist at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands. South American varieties could probably be made sweeter with a single gene change, he added.

Most quinoa is grown in three Andean countries: Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

The United States and Canada account for nearly 70% of exports, followed by France, the Netherlands and Germany. The price of quinoa has nearly tripled in recent years due to increased demand.

If printed, the sequence of letters corresponding to the quinoa genome comprised of 1.3bn molecular building blocks would take up 500,000 pages.

Original post:
Quinoa genome unveiled in search for hardy crop to feed world ... - The Guardian

February 8, 2017 The sequencing of the first high-quality quinoa genome by a KAUST-led research team could one day help transform our ability to feed the world's growing population. Credit: 2017 KAUST Linda Polik

An international team of scientists, including quinoa breeding experts from Wageningen University & Research, published the complete DNA sequence of quinoa the food crop that is conquering the world from South America in Nature magazine on 8 February 2017. Quinoa is rich in essential amino acids and nutritional fibres and does not contain gluten. The crop is important to farmers as it provides a reasonable yield even on poor soils. The new knowledge about quinoa DNA is already being used by breeders who are developing quinoa varieties which grow well in saline soil and still meet the taste requirements of consumers.

The scientists determined the sequence of the DNA-building blocks of the entire quinoa genome. The total length of the DNA, the 'genome', consists over a little over 1.3 billion DNA building blocks (the nucleotides A, C, G or T), divided over 18 chromosomes. Printed on paper this would add up to over 500,000 pages of text.

To map the DNA building blocks, the scientists used a smart combination of various DNA sequencing techniques. While this enabled them to put together ever-larger DNA segments in the computer from the huge amount of DNA information available, it did not lead to the 18 segments which represent the 18 chromosomes. The scientists therefore applied genetic maps that were made by crossbreeding plants to determine how molecular markers were inherited by the offspring. This allowed them to place most of the DNA on 18 large DNA-strains, representing the quinoa chromosomes.

According to Robert van Loo, expert in quinoa breeding at Wageningen University & Research, it was this combination that allowed the scientists to clearly map the DNA. "We were able to determine the location on the chromosome of no less than 85% of the DNA-sequence. This is a major benefit for plant breeders."

Van Loo and his colleagues will be using the new knowledge in various ways, including the development of quinoa varieties which meet the demands of both consumers and farmers. Van Loo: "For example, we discovered mutations which ensure that certain quinoa varieties cannot produce bitter tasting saponins. These 'sweet' varieties do not need to be polished to remove the bitter substances, saving some 15 to 20 per cent. With the new knowledge of quinoa DNA, we can quickly and easily select plants that do not produce bitter substances in the breeding process."

In the future, scientists can probably ensure that specific varieties such as those that are well adapted to the cultivation conditions in a specific region do not produce bitter substances.

"Gene directed mutation breeding could be a good approach in this regard, with varieties that have already proven their value regionally being the starting point," says Van Loo. "The varieties which are currently being grown in South America can probably be made sweet with one specific mutation."

The research was led by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, a region with difficult growth conditions for plants and with many poor or even saline soils. Wageningen University & Research provided DNA sequencing experts and breeding scientists to contribute to the research. It was this Wageningen team that made the genetic maps on which the gene which regulates the production of saponin (bitter substance) was found.

Ancient civilisations in the Andes already used quinoa as an important food crop. It faded into the background with the arrival of the Spanish, however, which is why quinoa was never truly 'domesticated' despite being such a good and healthy food crop.

One of the properties that makes quinoa less attractive is the presence of bitter substances on the outside of the seeds. Known as saponins, these substances can be removed from the seeds although the process costs time, money and water. Wageningen University & Research has already developed four varieties without bitter substances since the 1990s.

Quinoa is part of a plant family known for its growing power in extreme conditions, such as in poor soils, at high altitudes and even in saline soils. There are already various quinoa varieties which produce food in places where other food crops, such as wheat and rice, have very poor yields. As a result, quinoa is seen as a crop that can help produce extra food with fewer inputs of water and fertiliser. The new knowledge of the DNA will accelerate the development of extra sustainable quinoa varieties which also meet other demands from farmers and consumers alike.

Explore further: Bitter chemical coating leads to quinoa success

More information: The genome of Chenopodium quinoa, Nature, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature21370

Journal reference: Nature

Provided by: Wageningen University

The challenge posed by removing a chemical compound from their 'superfood' crop to create a market for WA quinoa led three innovative farmers to build Australia's largest quinoa processing plant in the state's south-west.

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An international team of scientists, including quinoa breeding experts from Wageningen University & Research, published the complete DNA sequence of quinoa the food crop that is conquering the world from South America ...

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When Chimeras of Animals can be made, why not mix it up with various food crops?

GM plants owned by big corp is the furthest thing from food security.

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Excerpt from:
Quinoa genome accelerates solutions for food security (Update) - Phys.Org

The mysterious majority as much as 98 percent of our DNA do not code for proteins. Much of this dark matter genome is thought to be nonfunctional evolutionary leftoversHowever, hidden among this noncoding DNA are many crucial regulatory elements that control the activity of thousands of genes.

[In an] effort to fully map and annotatethe human genome, including this silent majority, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)announced new grant funding for a nationwide project to set up five characterization centersto study how these regulatory elements influence gene expression andcell behavior.

By cataloging the functions of thousands of regulatory sequences, [researchers] hope to develop rules about how to predict and interpret other sequences functions. This would not only help illuminate the rest of the dark matter genome, it could also reveal new treatment targets for complex genetic diseases.

A lot of human diseases have been found to be associated with regulatory sequences, said [Nadav Ahituv, a professor of bioengineering at UC San Francisco]. For example, in genome-wide association studies for common diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and autism, 90 percent of the disease-associated DNA variants are in the noncoding DNA. So its not a gene thats changed, but what regulates it.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:The mysterious 98%: Scientists look to shine light on the dark genome

More here:
'Dark genome' could yield answers to complex genetic diseases - Genetic Literacy Project