%0 Journal Article
%T Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) Expressed Sequence Tag Project: Progress and Application
%A Suping Feng
%A Xingjun Wang
%A Xinyou Zhang
%A Phat M. Dang
%A C. Corley Holbrook
%A Albert K. Culbreath
%A Yaoting Wu
%A Baozhu Guo
%J International Journal of Genomics
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/373768
%X Many plant ESTs have been sequenced as an alternative to whole genome sequences, including peanut because of the genome size and complexity. The US peanut research community had the historic 2004 Atlanta Genomics Workshop and named the EST project as a main priority. As of August 2011, the peanut research community had deposited 252,832 ESTs in the public NCBI EST database, and this resource has been providing the community valuable tools and core foundations for various genome-scale experiments before the whole genome sequencing project. These EST resources have been used for marker development, gene cloning, microarray gene expression and genetic map construction. Certainly, the peanut EST sequence resources have been shown to have a wide range of applications and accomplished its essential role at the time of need. Then the EST project contributes to the second historic event, the Peanut Genome Project 2010 Inaugural Meeting also held in Atlanta where it was decided to sequence the entire peanut genome. After the completion of peanut whole genome sequencing, ESTs or transcriptome will continue to play an important role to fill in knowledge gaps, to identify particular genes and to explore gene function. 1. Introduction Legumes are a diverse and important family of angiosperms. With more than 650 genera and 18,000 species, legumes are the third largest family of higher plants and are second only to grasses in agriculture [1]. Peanut is one of the major economically important legumes and is widely grown in the southern United States, and countries like China, India, and in South and Central America and Africa. On a global basis, peanut is a major source of protein and vegetable oil for human nutrition. China and India together produce almost two-thirds of the worldĄŻs peanuts, and the US produces about 6% (http://faostat.fao.org/). Nearly two-thirds of global production is crushed for oil, and the remaining one third is consumed as food. From 2004 to 2006, peanuts were grown on an average of 21.49 million hectares worldwide with production totaling 32.98 million metric tons (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Ag_Statistics/2008/Chap03.pdf). During the same time, the US peanut averaged 571 thousand hectares with production of 1.9 million metric tons. Peanut production also has a significant role in sustainable agriculture in terms of global food security and nutrition, fuel and energy, sustainable fertilization, and enhanced agricultural productivity as a rotation crop. Peanut offers numerous health benefits, but is also one of the primary food
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijg/2012/373768/