FLICKR, DOMINIQUE ARCHAMBAULT
Species: Cultivated pineapple (Ananas comosus) and wild pineapple (A. bracteatus)
Genome size: 526 million base pairs
Pineapple is one of the world’s most successful tropical crops, grown in more than 80 countries. Researchers sequenced the genomes of two cultivated varieties and the fruit’s wild relative to explore its lineage and photosynthetic pathway. The international team published its results earlier this month (November 2) in Nature Genetics.
Unlike most plants, pineapples use crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis, which allows them to concentrate carbon dioxide at night and keep their stomata closed to conserve water during the day. The newly sequenced genomes revealed relationships between the genes for CAM photosynthesis and those for the pineapple’s circadian clock. “This is the first time scientists have found a link ...
