Chinese scientists have completed genome sequencing and assembly of sea cucumbers for the first time

Researchers at the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have successfully sequenced and assembled the genome of sea cucumbers for the first time in the world, the Institute of Oceanography announced on the 16th. This research result has important scientific significance for the research of biology, genetics and breeding of sea cucumber, and helps to promote the development of sea cucumber industry in China.

According to reports, this achievement was jointly completed by a research team led by Yang Hongsheng and Xiang Jianhai, researchers of the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and broke through the bottleneck of complex genome sequencing and assembly technology of sea cucumbers. The genome data obtained by the new generation sequencing technology is better than that of most aquatic animals.

Yang Hongsheng said that the successful decoding of the whole genome sequence will provide theoretical support for the reproduction and development, immune regulation, nutritional metabolism and genetic analysis of sea cucumbers, and promote the analysis of important economic traits, molecular marker-assisted selection and genome-wide genetic breeding of sea cucumbers. It is helpful to reveal the mechanism of special life phenomena such as summer dormancy, regeneration and autolysis of sea cucumber.

In the 1950s, researchers of the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out the morphological classification and classical biology of sea cucumbers, found out the distribution and biodiversity characteristics of sea cucumbers in China, and clarified their taxonomic status. Sea cucumber belongs to the phylum Echinodermata, which is mainly distributed in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea and Northeast Asia.

In the past two years, in view of the difficulties in raising seedlings, low survival rate, serious diseases, germplasm degradation and poor quality faced by the sea cucumber aquaculture industry in China, researchers from the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have carried out genomic research on sea cucumbers.

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