BRANFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Researchers from the International Citrus Genomics Consortium announced this weekend at the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) XIX conference in San Diego, California the availability of the sequence assembly and annotation of the first citrus genomes, the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) and the Clementine mandarin (Citrus clementina). The sweet orange genome was sequenced and analyzed in joint collaboration between the University of Florida, DOE Joint Genome Institute, the Georgia Institute of Technology and 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, using the high-throughput GS FLX System. Funded in part by the Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council, a citrus grower industry organization, the project is expected to assist geneticists and breeders improve these important fruit crops. The assembled and annotated genomes have been added to the publicly available database Phytozome.net, a project of the DOE JGI and the Center for Integrative Genomes.
