Cucumber is one of the most important vegetables in the world and has smaller genome comparing to gardening crops, which is suitable for genome deciphering. The Cucumber Genome Initiative is an international effort to unlock the genetic potential of an orphan crop using novel genomic technology, established with aims: 1) to obtain a complete sequence of the cucumber genome; 2) to get an in-depth understanding of the genetic and molecular bases of major agronomical traits; 3) to generate a comprehensive toolbox for molecular breeding.

By fully mining its biological potential, we are trying to realize fundamental breakthrough of molecular breeding and set an example for biological research of all the Cucurbitaceae crops.