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Genomics of a phylum distant from flowering plants: conifers

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Abstract

Conifers are evolutionarily distant from angiosperms, separated by 300 million years of evolution. The genomes of coniferous species are very large, among the largest of any nonpolyploid plant species. Their genomes are characterized by reduced evolutionary rate for coding genes, accumulation of noncoding DNA, and evolutionarily distance from angiosperms. I highlight both the advantages and disadvantages for conifers as model organism for genomics. With advances of new high-throughput sequencing technologies, we are at a watershed in conifer genomics.

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Acknowledgments

I thank David Neale and Bert Abbott for their comments on drafts, John MacKay for discussions about conifer genomics, Steven Jones and Inanc Birol for teaching me the latest about sequence assembly, Carol Ritland for support at both work and home, and Genome BC/ Genome Canada for their support of conifer genome projects.

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  1. Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T1Z4, Canada

    Kermit Ritland

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Communicated by A. Abbott

A contribution to the Special Issue “The genomes of the giants: a walk through the forest of tree genomes”

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Ritland, K. Genomics of a phylum distant from flowering plants: conifers. Tree Genetics & Genomes 8, 573–582 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-012-0497-4

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