Editing Pinus taeda (section)

==Genome==
Pines are the most common [[conifers]] and the genus ''Pinus'' consists of more than 100 species. Sequencing of their genomes remained a huge challenge because of the high complexity and size.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Neves|first=Leandro G.|author2=Davis, John M. |author3=Barbazuk, William B. |author4= Kirst, Matias |title=Whole-exome targeted sequencing of the uncharacterized pine genome|journal=The Plant Journal|year=2013|volume=75|issue=1|pages=146–156|doi=10.1111/tpj.12193|pmid=23551702|doi-access=free}}</ref> Loblolly pine became the first species with its complete genome sequenced.<ref name=Zimin/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Neale|first=David B|display-authors=etal|title=Decoding the massive genome of loblolly pine using haploid DNA and novel assembly strategies|journal=Genome Biology|date=Mar 2014|volume=15|issue=3|pages=R59|doi=10.1186/gb-2014-15-3-r59|pmid=24647006|pmc=4053751 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This was the largest genome assembled until 2018, when the [[axolotl]] genome (32Gb) was assembled.<ref name=Nowoshilow/>

The loblolly pine genome is made up of 22.18 billion base pairs, which is more than seven times that of humans.<ref name=main/> Conifer genomes are known to be full of [[repetitive DNA]], which make up 82% of the genome in loblolly pine (compared to only 50% in humans). The number of genes is estimated at 50,172, of which 15,653 are already confirmed. Most of the genes are [[Gene duplication|duplicates]]. Some genes have the longest [[introns]] observed among fully sequenced plant genomes.<ref name=wegrzyn>{{cite journal|last=Wegrzyn|first=J. L.|author2=Liechty, J. D.|author3=Stevens, K. A.|author4=Wu, L.-S.|author5=Loopstra, C. A.|author6=Vasquez-Gross, H. A.|author7=Dougherty, W. M.|author8=Lin, B. Y.|author9=Zieve, J. J.|author10=Martinez-Garcia, P. J.|author11=Holt, C.|author12=Yandell, M.|author13=Zimin, A. V.|author14=Yorke, J. A.|author15=Crepeau, M. W.|author16=Puiu, D.|author17=Salzberg, S. L.|author18=de Jong, P. J.|author19=Mockaitis, K.|author20=Main, D.|author21=Langley, C. H.|author22=Neale, D. B.|title=Unique Features of the Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.) Megagenome Revealed Through Sequence Annotation|journal=Genetics|year=2014|volume=196|issue=3|pages=891–909|doi=10.1534/genetics.113.159996|pmid=24653211| pmc=3948814 }}</ref>