The Ancestor of European and New Zealand Miyeok Is Korean Miyeok

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries & Sungkyunkwan University Research Team Analysis... "Wando Cultivated Seaweed Shows High Genetic Diversity"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] It has been confirmed through standard genome analysis that Korean Miyeok (seaweed) is the ancestor of Miyeok native to Europe and New Zealand.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 17th that, in collaboration with Professor Yoon Hwansoo's research team at Sungkyunkwan University, they have elucidated the evolutionary process of Miyeok by analyzing the genomes of domestic and international Miyeok for the first time in the world.

The research team first created a standard genome of farmed Miyeok from Wando, then decoded the genomes of a total of 41 Miyeok specimens farmed or naturally occurring in Korea, Europe, and New Zealand. Next, by comparing the genomes of Wando farmed Miyeok with the other Miyeok through a phylogenetic tree (family tree) analysis program, it was revealed that the genetic characteristics of Wando farmed Miyeok and European and New Zealand Miyeok are very similar.

Miyeok is an endemic species of Northeast Asia. It is known that Miyeok was discovered in Europe and New Zealand after the 1970s, and based on this family tree analysis, the research team concluded that the Miyeok in Europe and New Zealand originated from Korea. The fact that European and New Zealand Miyeok originated from the Northeast Asian region has been clarified through previous studies. However, this is the first time that the origin in Korea has been revealed through the creation of a standard genome and large-scale genome decoding.

Also, the genetic diversity of Wando farmed Miyeok was greater than that of wild Miyeok from Goseong, Gangwon Province, and Tongyeong, Gyeongnam Province. The research team explained that despite nearly 50 years of domestic Miyeok farming history, genetic diversity has been well preserved during the breeding process. The greater the genetic diversity, the better the adaptation to external environments such as climate change and diseases.

The research team expects that these results can be utilized for the development of new Miyeok varieties as well as basic and applied research in academia and industry.

The research results were published in the international academic journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.