Lotus japonicus is a small plant belonging to the bean family (Fabaceae). It is a wild legume and forage crop native to Japan and other parts of Eastern Asia. It is commonly used as a model organism to study legume nitrogen fixation and mycorrhizal symbiosis due to its rapid growth, small size, and simple genetic transformation. It is a diploid plant with a genome size of 472 Mb.
Genome release:
https://academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/article/15/4/227/375737
Sato, S., Nakamura, Y., Kaneko, T., Asamizu, E., Kato, T., Nakao, M., Sasamoto, S., Watanabe, A., Ono, A., Kawashima, K. and Fujishiro, T., 2008. Genome structure of the legume, Lotus japonicus. DNA research, 15(4), pp.227-239.
Content written by Galyna Vakulenko Summer Intern 2018
