Chinese Academy of Thermal Sciences releases fine genome mapping of mangoes

The Institute of Materials Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Thermal Sciences (ICTS), in collaboration with the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and 10 other institutions, has mapped the fine genome at the chromosomal level of the mango and revealed the evolutionary mechanism and the history of cultivar domestication of the mango species at the genomic level. The research results were published online in Genome Biology (IF=14.028), the top international journal in the field of genomics.

By deep sequencing and assembling the traditional mango variety Alfonso, the research team obtained a fine genome map of the mango with a size of 393Mb. Analysis of the assembly and annotation results suggests that the mango ancestor underwent a whole-genome duplication event near 33 million years ago, and that the duplicated double-copy genes were selectively preserved in genes related to energy metabolism, which may have provided an adaptive advantage for the mango in response to the dramatic reduction in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global cooling during that period. At the same time, the research team identified one of the many expanded gene families, called CHS, that may be associated with lacquer phenol synthesis. Lacquerol is a substance unique to species in the Lacaceae family, such as mangoes, that causes strong allergic reactions in humans. The discovery will provide a basis for elucidating the molecular mechanism of lacquer phenol synthesis. The project also re-sequenced 48 mango species and four closely related species of the same genus Mango. Further analysis revealed that traditional mango varieties are divided into two major taxa, Indian and Southeast Asian, while most commercial varieties exhibit allelic mixing. The mango agrophytes, which are present in southern China and Southeast Asian countries, form a distinct subclade within the Southeast Asian taxa; interestingly, the agrophyte resources in Hainan and other parts of the region also showed allelic mixing similar to that of commercial varieties.