Across China: Guangdong

Orchids research kicks off

Chinese scientists launched the world's first gene sequencing project on orchids yesterday, an effort to find out the evolutionary secret of the endangered species and to study the wider application of orchid-related products, such as cancer-fighting drugs.

Five top Chinese institutes, including the Orchid Conservation & Research Center of Shenzhen, the Beijing Genomics Institute (Shenzhen) and National Cheng Kung University from Taiwan, jointly sponsored the project.