RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Strategies of tolerance reflected in two North American maple genomes
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.07.19.452996
DO 10.1101/2021.07.19.452996
A1 Susan L. McEvoy
A1 U. Uzay Sezen
A1 Alexander Trouern-Trend
A1 Sean M. McMahon
A1 Paul G. Schaberg
A1 Jie Yang
A1 Jill L. Wegrzyn
A1 Nathan G. Swenson
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/20/2021.07.19.452996.abstract
AB Maples (the genus Acer) represent important and beloved forest, urban, and ornamental trees distributed throughout the Northern hemisphere. They exist in a diverse array of native ranges and distributions, across spectrums of tolerance or decline, and have varying levels of susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stress. Among Acer species, several stand out in their importance to economic interest. Here we report the first two chromosome-scale genomes for North American species, Acer negundo and Acer saccharum. Both assembled genomes contain scaffolds corresponding to 13 chromosomes, with A. negundo at a length of 442 Mb, N50 of 32 Mb and 30,491 genes, and A. saccharum at 626 Mb, N50 of 46 Mb, and 40,074 genes. No recent whole genome duplications were detected, though A. saccharum has local gene duplication and more recent bursts of transposable elements, as well as a large-scale translocation between two chromosomes. Genomic comparison revealed that A. negundo has a smaller genome with recent gene family evolution that is predominantly contracted and expansions that are potentially related to invasive tendencies and tolerance to abiotic stress. Examination of expression from RNA-Seq obtained from A. saccharum grown in long-term aluminum and calcium soil treatments at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, provided insights into genes involved in aluminum stress response at the systemic level, as well as signs of compromised processes upon calcium deficiency, a condition contributing to maple decline.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.