Sequencing of plant genomes – a review

The scientific revolution that started with the human-genome sequencing project, carried out with first-generation sequencing technology, has initiated other sequencing projects, including those for plant species. Different technologies have been developed together with the second- and third-generation sequencing platforms called “next-generation” sequencing. This review deals with the most relevant second-generation sequencing platforms, advanced analysis tools, and sequenced plant genomes. To date, a number of plant genomes have been sequenced, with many more projected for the near future. Using the new techniques and developed advanced bioinformatics tools, several studies including both plant genomics and transcriptomics were carried out. Likewise, completion of reference genome sequences and high-throughput resequencing projects presented opportunities to better understand the genomic nature of plants and accelerated the process of crop improvement. Modern sequencing and bioinformatics approaches have led to overcome the challenges that arose mainly in plant genomes with large size, high CG content, heterozygosity, transposable elements, repetitive DNA, and homopolymers or polyploidy, as may be the case with the most important crops. There is no doubt that the rest of the species will also benefit from such breakthroughs, which also include direct RNA sequencing without requiring cDNA synthesis. In fact, we are not in a postgenomic era as is sometimes stated, but rather in the beginning of a genomic revolution.