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<\/a>In many parts of West Africa, food is not considered food if it is not yam. This explains why yam\u2014also called the \u201cking of crops\u201d in Nigeria, exemplified in Chinua Achebe\u2019s classic novel \u201cThings Fall Apart,\u201d is such a prized food with immense cultural importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yam is a major food source in the tropics providing food and income for some 60 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite its importance, relatively little is known about the white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.), the dominant African yam, at the genetic level. Unlike other staple crops such as wheat and rice, the white Guinea yam is not widely cultivated, leading to its br anding as an \u201corphan crop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe more we underst and about the white Guinea yam, the better we will be able to help improve the crop, and help maintain this integral source of nutrition and income in a region undergoing the world\u2019s most rapid population explosion\u2014especially as the dem and for yam is currently overwhelming\u2014much more than what we are able to supply,\u201c said Dr Robert Asiedu<\/a>, Director for West Africa, Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale<\/a> (IITA) and Yam Breeder for about 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help improve the white Guinea yam, an international team of scientists from IITA, the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Science<\/a> (JIRCAS), the Iwate Biotechnology Research Centre<\/a> (IBRC), Japan, and the Earlham Institute <\/a> et The Sainsbury Laboratory<\/a> of the United Kingdom, has finally revealed the full genome sequence of this poorly understood but vitally important crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is an important breakthrough. It means that yam has joined those crops with a full genome sequence, such as rice and other better-known crops,\u201d said Asiedu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe implications are profound. Knowing the full DNA sequence will greatly facilitate our underst anding of how genetics controls key traits such as flowering, diseases, and others including quality traits, and this in turn will make the breeding of new varieties faster and more precise,\u201d he further explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe genome resource will help to overcome the many challenges facing yam farmers in Africa and other parts of the world,\u201d said Professor Ryohei Terauchi<\/a>, Kyoto University and Iwate Biotechnology Research Institute, study leader and corresponding author. These include pests and diseases, postharvest losses, and the need to develop more climate change resilient and sustainable systems of farming for the crop. Already, the international team of scientists has identified the genetic region that differentiates male and female plants and has developed a quick and cheap genetic assay (procedure) to tell them apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDistinguishing between male and female plants at the seedling stage can save months for yam scientists. This wouldn\u2019t have been achievable with the resources we had without the genome sequence,\u201d said Terauchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A paper on this breakthrough entitled \u201cGenome sequencing of the staple food crop white Guinea yam enables the development of a molecular marker for sex determination<\/a>\u201d, is openly accessible in the journal BMC Biology<\/a> and the high quality draft genome sequence is available in the public databases DNA Data Bank of Japan<\/a> (DDBJ) and US National Center for Biotechnology Information<\/a> (NCBI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00c0 propos de l'IITA<\/strong>, iita.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n Le Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale<\/a> (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa\u2019s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About JIRCAS<\/strong>, https:\/\/www.jircas.go.jp\/en\/top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n