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The oak genome has been sequenced


Research teams from INRA and the CEA have just sequenced for the first time the genome of the pedunculate oak tree, which is widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. This work will improve our understanding of the adaptive mechanisms of trees to environmental variations, and will thus provide elements that can be used to anticipate their responses to climate change.​

Published on 11 May 2015

The peduncle oak (Quercus robur), an iconic tree, is part of the largest botanical section of the genus Quercus: the white oaks, of which there are 200 species present in Europe, Asia and America. A consortium led by the INRA of Bordeaux-Aquitaine, in partnership with the CEA's National Sequencing Center (Génoscope), has just sequenced the pedunculate oak genome. After three years of work, the entire genetic information carried by its 12 pairs of chromosomes has been deciphered. The consortium has characterized 50,000 genes and estimated that half of the 1.5 billion base pairs in the genome consist of repeat elements. This is the first sequencing for a species in the genus Quercus, which has important economic, ecological, and cultural importance in many countries.

Sharing the results
In accordance with the international agreements of Bermuda (1998) and Fort Lauderdale (2003), as well as the Toronto Declaration (2009), the oak genome sequencing data have been made openly available to the scientific community (www.oakgenome.fr) prior to the finalized publication of the scientific paper by the consortium, planned in the coming months.

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