Recent advance in carrot genomics

In recent years there has been an effort towards the development of genomic resources in carrot. The number of available sequences for carrot in public databases has increased recently. This has allowed the design of SSRs markers, COS markers and a high-throughput SNP assays for genotyping. Additional molecular tools include the first high-throughput DArT array and the full sequence of organelle genomes. These molecular resources have been successfully used to gain new insights into carrot genetic diversity, organelle genome evolution and to establish the first dense sequence-based linkage maps. Supported by a consortium of private companies, sequencing of the carrot genome is currently ongoing. Its release, will establish a solid framework for carrot genomic studies, opening a new challenging and exciting era for the carrot scientific community.