Within the wake of the recent UN Food Systems +2 Stocktaking Moment in Rome, the highlight on global food security has never been more critical. Addressing the challenges of a burgeoning population and changing climate requires modern solutions, and one area showing remarkable promise is agrigenomics. Notably, the collaboration between Professor Rajeev Varshney and MGI stands as a shining example of how genomics is revolutionizing agriculture.
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Advances in genome sequencing prior to now decade have significantly benefited agriculture and food security. Through these genomics advances, scientists are usually not just capable of higher understand crop traits, but in addition enjoy a more rapid process for improving varieties. By providing cost-effective sequencing, top quality data and a very efficient all-in-one workflow, MGI has contributed to accelerating and elevating the research of necessary crops in Australia and other regions and participating the advancement of world sustainable food systems.
Agriculture in a drought-hardened Australia
Horticulture is Australia’s third largest agricultural industry with most growers being small-scale family farms. With water availability affecting horticulture in just about all areas of the world, growers not only face changing customer demands, but are also coping with climate change, food security and other agricultural challenges. In some developing countries, crop productivity could be very low attributable to a scarcity of technology and funds and may be further exacerbated in drought areas.
As a key exporter of horticultural products, Australia needs to stay competitive amongst global markets by supporting a better production and cultivation of crops which can be immune to diseases while also improving the profitability and livelihood for growers. Also, horticultural crop growers are learning tips on how to adapt their very own agriculture practices to turn into more productive and economically resilient.
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Genomics is a crucial solution to improving crop production and facilitating higher food security on a worldwide level. Through the use of genomics, we are able to discover the genes which can be chargeable for a better yield, and to be tolerant to drought and resilience to different abiotic and biotech stresses. As well as, breeding programs can turn into more efficient and sustainable with the assistance of genetic solutions, and more superior varieties may be developed based on genetic information.
Yet, the reality is that some horticultural crops like banana, pineapple, papaya, custard apple and passionfruit either lack basic genomic resources or they are usually not getting used in breeding programs. Until now, cost has been a essential barrier for the widespread adoption of genomics in such crops. Thus, leveraging MGI’s highly reasonably priced platform, scientists today can have access to highly efficient, cutting-edge sequencing technologies at a competitive cost, even for those in developing countries, and tap into the complete potential of agrigenomics.
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A fruitful partnership spanning over seven years
Since its inception, MGI has been working with Professor Rajeev Varshney, Fellow of the Royal Society and Director of Centre for Crop and Food Innovation at Murdoch University (MU) in Western Australia. A globally recognized leader in genome sequencing, cataloguing and utilizing genetic diversity, genomics-assisted breeding, seed system and capability constructing in agriculture, Prof. Varshney has been a formidable advocate for MGI since his time on the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, devoting himself to decoding major orphan tropical crops and creating relevant genomic resources across Asia and Africa.
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As early as 2011, Prof. Varshney, while at ICRISAT, he led the genome sequencing of pigeon pea, a very important crop in lots of developing countries, and released a high-quality reference genome for the crop, which has since been utilized by researchers to check its genetics and biology. Later, with the goal to expand the world’s climate change-resilient food sources, he identified genes for tolerance to drought and warmth by sequencing 429 chickpea lines from 45 countries over three years, yielding insights that may allow newer varieties of chickpea with higher yields to be developed, together with varieties that are disease and pest-resistant and higher able to face up to the vagaries of weather.
In his continuous work on improving food and nutrition security in India and a number of other other countries in Africa and Asia, Prof. Varshney relied on MGI platforms based on its proprietary DNBSEQ™ sequencing technology, citing its core benefits of accuracy, decreased levels of duplication, and an impressively low index hopping rate. In 2021, the team conducted a large-scale re-sequencing of three,366 chickpea genomes and generated an entire picture of the genetic variation inside chickpeas, together with a validated roadmap for using the knowledge and genomic resources to enhance the crop.
More recently, Prof. Varshney joined hands with MGI to sequence 10,225 chickpeas, representing the biggest effort of its kind for crops utilizing the MGI platform, and in last yr, Prof. Varshney added stLFR data from 26 individuals based on DNBSEQ-T7* in Australia to construct the pan-genome for analyzing 10,225 individuals, and the info demonstrated was impressive. The joint research effort between Prof. Varshney and MGI has generated greater than 17 publications thus far, amongst which seven articles were published on CNS series, including Nature.
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The research on chickpeas is especially significant because the crop represents a very important source of protein, and its production ranks third amongst pulses globally. Nevertheless, global yields of pulses have stagnated during the last five a long time, contributing to low per-capita availability of such foods, and high levels of malnutrition in developing countries. As well as, drought and rising temperatures have caused over 70% global yield losses in chickpeas.
The excellent maps generated have facilitated the identification of a lot of genetic differences, genetic evolution evaluation and the prediction of candidate genes. Scientists are capable of develop high-quality genomic resources in so-called orphan legume crops, which is extremely effective in identifying the genes related to drought tolerance. These genes have also been used to develop superior lines in India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, and after multi-location testing of those lines, greater than 10 improved drought-tolerant and disease-registered varieties have been released in several developing countries.
For a lot of developing countries, the flexibility to utilize and sequence information for crop improvement at a comparatively low price is crucial in addressing the numerous aspects affecting agricultural productivity. On that front, MGI’s cost-effective sequencing technology helps to advance our understanding of plant genetics and genomics, contributing to the event of precious genomic resources for necessary food crops and putting an end to world hunger.
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Latest advances empowered by MGI
This yr, led by Prof. Varshney, the Western Australian State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (SABC) at MU is establishing the SABC Advanced Genomics Platform to further research in crop genomics to maintain Australian farmers competitive in the worldwide marketplace. The initiative goals initially to check the genetic material in plant cells to enhance the standard and resilience of 5 fruits: banana, pineapple, papaya, custard apple and passionfruit. The genetic data and data produced might be available to breeders and growers through a publicly available database, allowing breeders to pinpoint the relevant traits more quickly and ultimately profit growers through the event of more productive varieties in shorter timeframes. SABC-Advanced Genomics Platform will later be available to be used on other broadacre and horticultural crops.
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The up-and-coming platform might be facilitated by an end-to-end workflow consisting of MGI’s MGISP-960 High-throughput Automated Sample Preparation System, DNBSEQ-T7 Ultra-high Throughput Genetic Sequencer* and ZTRON All-in-one Genetic Data Platform. For the aim of assembling whole genome sequencing (WGS) data and undertaking WGS of Australian germplasm collection for all these five crops, DNBSEQ-T7* offers the capability to deliver ultra-high throughput of high-quality, reliable sequencing data at a fraction of the price with a fast turnaround time (as much as 7TB per every day). Through deeper, faster and more accurate sequencing, Prof. Varshney and his team sit up for significantly boosting the variety of samples they’ll analyze and uncovering latest research possibilities at a much lower cost.
“Throughout my collaboration with MGI, I even have witnessed the continual evolution of their competitively priced sequencing technology that may be used on a whole bunch of hundreds of genomes in a comparatively short period of time. Their products are pivotal in playing a very important role in accelerating basic science in addition to the sensible application of genomics for improving agriculture, in each developed and developing countries,” explained Prof. Varshney. “MGI shouldn’t be merely a service provider, but a real collaborator in empowering scientists and promoting scientific development.”
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Moving forward, MGI will proceed to empower the work of Prof. Varshney and his team at MU in developing high-quality, secure, and sustainable agricultural products and increasing the competitiveness of the Australian agriculture industry (each broadacre and horticultural crops) with its state-of-the-art life science tools. As a trusted partner in life science innovations, MGI will keep driving agrigenomics research and industry development, thereby helping producers overcome challenges and improving the performance and value of necessary crops to boost global food security.
About MGI
MGI Tech Co. Ltd. (MGI), headquartered in Shenzhen, is committed to constructing core tools and technology to guide life science through intelligent innovation. Based on its proprietary technology, MGI focuses on research & development, production and sales of sequencing instruments, reagents, and related products to support life science research, agriculture, precision medicine and healthcare. MGI is a number one producer of clinical high-throughput gene sequencers*, and its multi-omics platforms include genetic sequencing*, medical imaging, and laboratory automation. MGI’s mission is to develop and promote advanced life science tools for future healthcare. For more information, please visit the MGI website or connect on Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.
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