Scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria have sequenced the genome of Australia’s floral emblem, the golden wattle Acacia pycnantha, for the first time.
This will be a valuable resource for all studies involving Acacia, including the evolution and origin of the golden wattle, conservation, breeding, invasiveness, and physiology of the genus, and for comparative studies of legumes, including work on plant diseases.
The golden wattle now joins the small group of Australian plants that have had their genome sequenced, including blue gum, macadamia, and waratah. See ‘A genome resource for Acacia, Australia’s largest plant genus’, by McLay et al., https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274267
