Team sequences shea tree genome to support breeding and conservation efforts in the United Kingdom

Shea Nut

Shea Butter

United Kingdom

Published Sep 10, 2021

Tridge summary

The shea tree is a vital social and economic crop that is best known for the popular product shea butter—a multimillion-dollar ingredient used in cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals and chocolate. For hundreds of thousands of African families living in the "shea belt" it is also a crucial source of nutrition and income. Despite its increasing demand, the slow-growing shea tree is being threatened by other cash crops and its preservation most likely lies in its genetic improvement. To enable such work, an international team of researchers led by the University of New Hampshire has sequenced the shea tree's genome, providing a valuable resource for the strategic development of the species.

Original content

"A shea tree can take 25 years or more to come into production so it can be very costly for a farmer to wait that long and wonder if a tree is worth keeping," said Iago Hale, associate professor of specialty crop improvement. "With such a long growing period, traditional breeding strategies simply aren't viable, which is one reason there aren't any high-performing shea varieties. The shea genome will enable researchers to gauge the potential of a seedling as soon as it germinates and through genome-enabled tree selection, we can start moving the needle on this difficult species."In their study, published online in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, researchers assembled a chromosome-scale reference genome for the shea tree. Like the human genome, the shea tree genome contains genes that determine traits helping researchers to determine tree characteristics. Genome annotation by the researchers led to the identification of 38,505 coding genes. Further comparative sequencing ...

Source: Phys