NIFS announced that it completed the world's best reference genome map of olive flounder with complete segregation data for male and female, registering it in NCBI* as well as publishing it in the Scientific Data** - globally authoritative journal in the sector of genome big data research - in November, 2024.

 *NCBI: National Center for Biotechnology Information of the United States 

**Scientific Data: A peer-reviewed, open-access journal for descriptions of scientifically valuable data sets, and research that advances the sharing and reuse of scientific data

In partnership with a research team of Chungnam National University, NIFS completed the map of olive flounder, which is Korea's representative aquaculture species.

A Reference Genome is a standardized representative sequence created from the genomes of multiple individuals, serving as a genetic baseline for comparing DNA changes.

The world's research on olive flounder used to utilize China's data registered in NCBI to date, but there has been a limit to use the data in genetic improvement research as the data is not only unable to reflect the unique characteristics of Korean olive flounder, but also mainly about female olive flounder.

Under circumstances like this, NIFS completed the reference genome map of male and female olive flounder by using the latest genome sequencing. When NIFS did genome annotation for the first time in 2013, there was the parts difficult to decode due to the technical limitations. By renewly analyzing the parts this time, NIFS improved the accuracy of genome sequence greatly.

The reference genome earns a recognition as the world's best level because it is superior to the Chinese one in terms of Scaffold N50, the length of read, and genome size. Also, it is highly useful for research in that it is the world's first olive flounder genome with completely segregated male and female genetic information.

Based on the reference genome map of Korean olive flounder, NIFS currently cunducts selective breeding of olive flounder. In addition, harnessing the genetic information, NIFS accelerates the genetic improvement of olive flounder by identifying trait-associated genetic variants.