Structural and Functional Genomics of Chenopodium quinoa

Abstract

AbstractQuinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), also known as ‘the mother grain’ of the Incas, is a pseudo-cereal crop originating from the Andes, mainly cultivated for its seeds and consumed in a similar way to rice and other staple grains. Although it is primarily a subsistence crop in Andean regions, quinoa is gaining international importance due to the exceptional nutritive value of its grains and its ability to maintain yields in harsh environmental conditions. As a consequence, breeding programs are rapidly expending, and a better knowledge of the structure and function of quinoa genome is becoming increasingly needed in order to support and fasten breeding efforts and make quinoa more productive and better adapted to its novel culture environments. The recent release of several novel sequence resources such as the genome reference sequence of coastal quinoa accession QQ74 and the re-sequencing of several wild and cultivated quinoas will certainly contribute to this aim. In this chapter, we review the current molecular resources available for the structural characterization of quinoa allotetraploid genome and discuss future prospects for the functional characterization of genes underlying traits of agronomic importance.KeywordsGenomicsTranscriptomics Chenopodium quinoa Genome sequencingMolecular markersGene expression