Yoshino cherry tree is considered to be an interspecific hybrid between Edohigan and Prunus speciosa.It is cloned and propagated by cuttings, etc., and is planted not only in Japan but all over the world.Predicting the flowering date of Yoshino cherry tree is very important for the tourism industry, but little molecular biological analysis has been performed on flowering. One of the reasons is that the genome structure is complicated because it has two genomes, and it is not easy to analyze the genome and genes.

　At the Kazusa DNA Research Institute, we analyzed the genome of Yoshino cherry trees planted in Ueno Onshi Park and analyzed 139 varieties owned by Shimane University (SNP analysis), and created gene prediction and linkage maps.In addition, Shimane University and Kyoto Prefectural University jointly searched for genes involved in flowering.

　As a result, Yoshino cherry tree, as is commonly accepted, found the possibility of having Edohigan and Oshima cherry as ancestors.Its genomic structure was very similar to its closely related species, cherries, peaches and sea urchins.It is estimated that the two ancestral species of Yoshino cherry were separated into different species 2 million years ago, and it is thought that Yoshino cherry was born when these two species were reunited by crossing a hundred and several decades ago.We analyzed the transcripts of the buds for 552 year before flowering (every 2 month) and 1 month before flowering (every 1 days), and clarified the changes in gene expression until Yoshino cherry blossoms.

　This will enable accurate identification of Yoshino cherry ancestors, accurate prediction of flowering dates, and development of new varieties.The research results will be published in the DBcherry database operated by Kazusa DNA Research Institute.

Paper information:[BioRxiv] Phased genome sequence of an interspecific hybrid flowering cherry, SomeiYoshino (Cerasus x yedoensis)