RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The pomegranate (<em>Punica granatum</em> L.) genome provides insights into fruit quality and ovule developmental biology
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 158857
DO 10.1101/158857
A1 Zhaohe Yuan
A1 Yanming Fang
A1 Taikui Zhang
A1 Zhangjun Fei
A1 Fengming Han
A1 Cuiyu Liu
A1 Min Liu
A1 Wei Xiao
A1 Wenjing Zhang
A1 Mengwei Zhang
A1 Youhui Ju
A1 Huili Xu
A1 He Dai
A1 Yujun Liu
A1 Yanhui Chen
A1 Lili Wang
A1 Jianqing Zhou
A1 Dian Guan
A1 Ming Yan
A1 Yanhua Xia
A1 Xianbin Huang
A1 Dongyuan Liu
A1 Hongmin Wei
A1 Hongkun Zheng
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/03/158857.abstract
AB Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) with an uncertain taxonomic status has an ancient cultivation history, and has become an emerging fruit due to its attractive features such as the bright red appearance and the high abundance of medicinally valuable ellagitannin-based compounds in its peel and aril. However, the absence of genomic resources has restricted further elucidating genetics and evolution of these interesting traits. Here we report a 274-Mb high-quality draft pomegranate genome sequence, which covers approximately 81.5% of the estimated 336 Mb genome, consists of 2,177 scaffolds with an N50 size of 1.7 Mb, and contains 30,903 genes. Phylogenomic analysis supported that pomegranate belongs to the Lythraceae family rather than the monogeneric Punicaceae family, and comparative analyses showed that pomegranate and Eucalyptus grandis shares the paleotetraploidy event. Integrated genomic and transcriptomic analyses provided insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of ellagitannin-based compounds, the color formation in both peels and arils during pomegranate fruit development, and the unique ovule development processes that are characteristic of pomegranate. This genome sequence represents the first reference in Lythraceae, providing an important resource to expand our understanding of some unique biological processes and to facilitate both comparative biology studies and crop breeding.