Cassava is an important (but poorly performing) staple crop in Africa and other tropical countries. Although cassava can outcross, most cultivated cassava is clonally propagated, owing in part to long breeding cycles. Cassava is susceptible to disease, but the available germplasm is of limited diversity, so breeders need genomic sources of diversity to improve this vital crop. Daniel Rokhsar (University of California, Berkeley and DOE JGI), Steve Rounsley (Dow Agrosciences) and colleagues sequenced nearly 60 cultivated cassava and wild relatives and genotyped more than 250 African accessions to provide a Cassava genome resource that will support genome-enabled improvement. Their paper can be found here online, and in the coming May issue of Nature Biotechnology.
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