Development of whole genome sequence database of BARI Piaz-1 (Allium cepa) to accelerate genomics and proteomics research

Onion (Allium cepa L.) a bulbous herb, Allium cepa, of the family Alliaceae and is one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide. The plant is characterized by an edible bulb composed of food storage leaves. To harness the potential of novel bioinformatics and computational biology tools to explore the genome of locally developed BARI piaz-1 (Allium cepa L.) with a view to characterize all important genes and proteins [Developed by Spices Research Center, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)]. The genomic information generated from this project will be invaluable for future molecular breeding strategies and possible upgradation through genomic selection of this unique breed of Bangladesh. The project has following specific objectives: (i) To develop an annotated reference genome of BARI Piaz-1 (Allium cepa L.) with high sequence coverage (10X) using state-of-the-art next generation sequencing (NGS) approach and other modern computational biology tools (ii) To foster comparative genomics and transcriptomics study (through RNAseq approach) to identify gene(s) associated with economic important traits of BARI Piaz-1 (Allium cepa L.)