Ten Thousand Plant Genome Project-BGI Group Official Website

Ten Thousand Plant Genome Project

The Ten Thousand Plant Genome Project (10KP) aims to sequence the genomes of 10,000 plants through extensive global cooperation, comprehensive resource collection, and systematic scientific design and research to promote biodiversity, understand plant evolution, and ecological protection and related important basic scientific research and for the development of agricultural applications.
Plants are the core component of the earth's biodiversity and ecosystems, the basis for human survival and development, and the fundamental guarantee for the sustainable development of human society and the economy. Tens of thousands of plants are a treasure trove of resources that are necessary for the sustainable development of the human economy and society. Understanding the systemic evolution and biodiversity of plants at the genomic level would be helpful for a comprehensive understanding of the life mysteries of plants themselves, and is essential to the protection of plant ecosystems and the development and utilization of plant resources. Currently, the diversity of plant genome is still largely unknown, so far only around 300 plant species around the world have been published, mainly the model plant and crop species. A large number of wild species resources still remain unexplored.
The Ten Thousand Plant Genome Project (10KP) was jointly initiated by BGI-Shenzhen (Institute of Life Sciences) and several authoritative experts in the field of botany during the 19th International Botany Conference in 2017.
As an important step in understanding the tree of life and plant genome variation, the program provides new opportunities for studying biological processes and solving basic research problems. It will improve our understanding of plant genome diversity and also provide plant scientists with interdisciplinary comparisons. Analyses would provide important genetic resources. At the same time, the project will expand the species sequencing to every genus apart from crops and model plants, thus providing extremely important genetic information data resources for the plant science community.
At present, the project has completed sequencing and assembly of nearly 200 plant genomes, and plans to complete the sequencing of nearly 1,000 plant genomes (including varieties) in the next four years.