US and Chinese researchers have collaborated to assemble a draft genome for kiwifruit, according to a report by the Fresh Fruit Portal.
The project was an initiative by the International Kiwifruit Genome Consortium (IKGC), founded in 2011 by several notable universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the national academy for natural sciences in China.
The Hongyang variety of kiwifruit was used to sequence the kiwifruit genome, according to a media release from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research of Cornell University, one of the IKGC’s founders.
China’s interest in mapping the kiwifruit genome may stem from the fruit’s origins, which are thought to lie in southwestern China’s mountains and ranges.
Its cultivation began to spread very recently after seeds were first introduced to New Zealand in the 21st century.
The Fresh Fruit Portal reports that statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation state that global kiwifruit production in 2011 was around 1.44m metric tonnes.
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