"Taiwan agricultural researchers have completed the DNA sequencing of 56
out of 60 non-hybrid butterfly orchid species worldwide, facilitating
future research, breeding and identification, Council of Agriculture (COA)
officials announced...
The COA's Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension
Station has spent three years and some NT$2 million (USD$60,500) on the
project, sorting the orchids' DNA and establishing the first orchid DNA
database in the world.
The findings have been published by the science journal Plant
Systematics and Evolution and the DNA datasets have also been added to the
database at the U.S. National Institute of Health.
Tsai Chi-chu, an associate research fellow at the station, explained
that each butterfly orchid carries its unique DNA sequence and that even
after several generations of hybridization, the extraction of the
"descendants" can still be recognized by its genetic expressions.
Therefore, with the help of such a database, researchers can now
easily identify "who" the orchid is and "where" it comes from, he added.
Making examples of two seemingly identical species in Taiwan, Tsai
said that the Phalaenopsis aphrodite subsp. formosana and Phalaenopsis
amabilis var. formosana are extremely similar in appearance, often causing
unnecessary confusion in research and breeding. "Now, we can tell aphrodite
from amabilis by a simple DNA test," he said."
article URL :
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/living/16531265.htm?source=rss&channel=sunherald_living
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