Scientific name: Lactuca sativa
Common name(s): lettuce
Name as shown in Phylogenes: lettuce
Ploidy: diploid
Description:
Lactuca sativa (lettuce) is one of the top 10 most valuable crops in the U.S.. Lettuce belongs to the largest family of the green plant lineage, Asteraceae (a.k.a. Compositae also commonly known as the daisy or sunflower family). In addition to its agricultural significance, lettuce is also important for understanding the evolution and successful expansion of the Asteraceae family.
Lettuce has a large genome size (ca. 2.5 Gb), ca. 74% of which are repetitive sequences. A large portion of the genome, ca. 26% of the genome assembly containing 30% predicted genes, is present in triplicate due to an ancient genome triplication event. The characteristic milky sap of lettuce is latex, similar to natural rubber from the rubber tree.
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