Chile: The genome of the Araucaria araucana chicken has been sequenced, which will help manage its risk of extinction

September 2024 Perhaps not many people know what a genome is, but beyond the technicality, it is key to know that its detection represents a great advance in being able to preserve and restore species, especially those that are most compromised. Specifically, the genome is the totality of the genetic material that an organism or a particular species possesses, and sequencing is a technology that allows us to know and decipher the genetic code (complete DNA sequence) that all organisms have. In this context, Chilean science recently recorded a relevant milestone regarding a native Chilean species such as the Araucaria araucana, which is at risk of extinction. And this is because, as a result of an alliance between CMPC and the Laboratory of Plant Epigenetics, led by Dr. in Biology Rodrigo Hasbún (Universidad de Concepción, Chile) and the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I²SysBio), represented by Dr. Tomás Matus (Universidad de Valencia), the genome of this species was ...