RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A happy accident: a novel turfgrass reference genome
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.03.08.483531
DO 10.1101/2022.03.08.483531
A1 Alyssa R. Phillips
A1 Arun S. Seetharam
A1 Taylor AuBuchon-Elder
A1 Edward S. Buckler
A1 Lynn J. Gillespie
A1 Matthew B. Hufford
A1 Victor Llaca
A1 M. Cinta Romay
A1 Robert J. Soreng
A1 Elizabeth A. Kellogg
A1 Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/09/2022.03.08.483531.abstract
AB Poa pratensis, commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass, is a popular cool-season grass species used as turf in lawns and recreation areas globally. Despite its substantial economic value, a reference genome had not previously been assembled due to the genome’s relatively large size and biological complexity that includes apomixis, polyploidy, and interspecific hybridization. We report here a fortuitous de novo assembly and annotation of a P. pratensis genome. The draft assembly consists of 6.09 Gbp with an N50 scaffold length of 65.1 Mbp, and a total of 118 scaffolds, generated using PacBio long reads and Bionano optical map technology. We annotated 256K gene models and found 58% of the genome to be composed of transposable elements. To demonstrate the applicability of the reference genome, we evaluated population structure and estimated genetic diversity in three North American wild P. pratensis populations. Our results support previous studies that found high genetic diversity and population structure within the species. The reference genome and annotation will be an important resource for turfgrass breeding and biologists interested in this complex species.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.