For the first time in the world, high-quality whole genome sequences of opium poppies have been published.

On August 31st, an academic paper co-authored by the Ye Kai Young Scientists Studio Team at Xi'an Jiaotong University, the Ian Graham Fellows at the University of York, and Ning Zemin, a researcher at the Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, was published in the latest issue of The Journal of Science, which was published internationally for the first time High-quality whole genome sequences reveal major double and rearrangement events in their evolutionary history, clarify the evolutionary history of morphine alkaloids and synthetic gene clusters, and lay an important foundation for further development of the medicinal value of opium poppy and the discovery of the evolutionary history of poppy and even early geminiplants.
, Ye Kai Young Scientist Synod Guo Li and Yang Xiaofei lecturer scoundrels as co-first authors of the article, Professor Ye Kai as co-authors, Xi'an Jiaotong University as the first author unit.
it is understood that the research results from receiving online published only 8 days after the time.
people know that poppies are often referred to as "the flower of evil", although the appearance is beautiful, but can breed addiction.
on the other hand, it is a cure for the suffering of human diseases.
, archaeological finds have traces of poppy use in caves at the foot of the Neolithic Alps, and the introduction to China was caused by a large food pilgrimage during the Tang Dynasty.
According to Ye Kai, cracking the poppy genome is a world problem that the scientific community needs to crack urgently.
this is due to the large number of repeated sequences (about 70%) of the poppy genome and the many large-scale structural variations that have made it difficult to parse the genome.
, for the first time, Ye Kai's team successfully deciphered the poppy genome and revealed its evolutionary history using a variety of cutting-edge genome sequencing techniques, complex mathematical models, deep mining and analysis methods, targeting native poppy plants in the United Kingdom, and completed the whole genome sequencing of poppies and high-quality assembly analysis internationally for the first time.
study shows that the poppy genome has had a genome-wide doubling event 7.8 million years ago, and at least 110 million years ago, a genome fragment doubling event.
, for the first time, 15 genes of the poppy synthetic cough-coughing nacodin and analgesic morphine-based alkaloids have been found to form supergene clusters on chromosome 11, which are specifically expressed and co-expressed on the root and stem.
it is precisely because of the evolution of the poppy due to the experience of genome doubling events and multiple gene fragmenta amplification, loss, fusion and rearrangement, resulting in the aggregation and co-expression of two metabolic pathway genes, forming a supergene cluster, which can be combined to synthesize new secondary metabolites efficiently, and the most potent morphine biobase and nacodin components in the poppy are the secondary metabolites of poppy.
According to relevant medical experts, the Ye Kai team announced the whole genome sequence of poppies, deciphering the mystery of synthetic secondary metabolites in the poppy, not only to develop molecular plant breeding tools, the cultivation of new varieties is of great benefit, but also in industrial synthesis selectively improve the production of alkaloids with different drug effects of significant guiding significance.
"Our team's research purpose and positioning is to enable plants to meet medical needs for the benefit of species for the benefit of humanity."
," Ye Kai said.
, Ye Kai team's poppy genome project research lasted more than two years, from the end of 2015 began to plan the design, in June 2017 to get all the data, to February 2018 officially completed, the team collected the data in just 8 months to efficiently complete the very difficult and challenging research analysis process. The secret of
's rapid success is to make the most of international scientific collaboration.
over the years, Xi'an Jiaotong University has actively implemented an open and inclusive talent policy, through a series of introduction and training programs, for young teachers to build a complete ladder of growth.
early 2016, Ye Kaiya, who has been studying overseas for 12 years, chose to return to his home country, and Xi'an Jiaotong University set up the first young scientist studio led by Professor Ye Kai. After the establishment
of ye Kai Young Scientists Studio, with the support of the school's two-class discipline construction project, with the guidance of "precision medicine" and "Chinese medicine" national strategic development planning, we actively set up an interdisciplinary research team, conduct cutting-edge cross-cutting research in bioinformatics and genomics, and, based on the latest theories of large data processing and pattern recognition, have achieved a series of international leading results in the application of the international and domestic genome projects.
Source: Science.com.