Humans have been eating peaches and almonds for thousands of years. Although at first sight the products of these trees may seem to be very different, both species are part of the Prunus genus, and are genetically very similar—so much so that they can be cross-bred, and fertile hybrids can be obtained from them. Now, an international team led by researchers of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) has sequenced the genome of one almond tree variety and compared it to the peach tree genome. The detailed comparison of both genomes provides insights into their evolutionary history, and reveals the key role played by genomic mobile elements, also known as transposable elements, or transposons, in the diversification of both species. According to the authors of the paper, the movement of the transposons could lie at the origin of the differences between the fruit of both species or the flavour of the almond.
Click here for original story, Almond and peach tree genomes shed light on their differences
Source: Phys.org