Seagrasses are the only flowering plants that live in the sea. Understanding the genomic basis for their many unique adaptations is fundamental to successful management, as seagrasses are being lost globally. Seagrasses are among the world’s largest carbon sinks and thus relevant to the DOE missions carbon cycling, biogeochemistry and JGI plant flagship genomics. Translational applications extend to engineering of salinity tolerance and hybrid C3-C4 photosynthesis that may inform terrestrial crop enhancement. The Marine Angiosperm Genome Initiative (MAGI) will sequence five seagrass genomes.
Proposer: Yes Van de Peer, Ghent University/VIB (Belgium)
Proposal: Marine Angiosperm Genome Initiative (MAGI)