Pine Trees Record Holders – Oldest and Now Longest Genome

Pine Trees Record Holders – Oldest and Now Longest Genome
The family of pines are part of the oldest group of trees, the gymnosperms, which arose when dinosaurs were still roaming around the Earth 290 million years
ago. Pines hold several records because of this fact, since among the family are the oldest-living trees, the nearly 5,000 year old bristlecone pines of
Nevada and California. Now joining that lofty group are the owners of the largest and most intricate genome fully explored to date.

The loblolly pine, also known as the southern yellow pine, is a complex species that has been around for millennia. Because of this fact, these trees have
done well and are widespread, existing in many ecosystems. Having survived plague and climate alterations, the species has a very lengthy DNA sequence that
is just now being studied in its entirety.

This subspecies of pine is the tree species most used in the U.S. for wood pulp production. This is because it can be farmed in many regions and climates,
and because it has survived thousands of years and built up resistance to many of the bacteria and fungus that kill other tree species. Because of this
resistance, however, and the trees’ long history on earth, its genome is one of the more complicated ones ever studied. As each disease is battled by the
trees’ genome, the species inherits grafts of other DNA onto the strand which can be used to fight disease incursions in future.

In the past, scientists could only study an entire genome with a lot of time and massive computing power, and thus have studied only full genomes the size of
the human DNA strand. The loblolly pine, however, has a genome which is seven times longer than that of humans. It is important to study the loblolly DNA,
however, so that farmers and ecologists can understand the resistance these trees have to disease and the mechanisms by which they have survived for so long
and in such a widespread manner.

The University of Maryland has come up with a new genome packaging method, though, which shortcuts the old method of study. This system pre-processes genomes
en route to other universities, eliminating DNA sequences that are repetitive or redundant before sending them on. The loblolly genome was pre-processed in
this way and then sent on to UC Davis for study.