We describe the use ofa Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to crypto- fund the single molecule sequencing and publication ofa Type ll Cannabis plant. This resulted in the construction of the most contiguous Cannabis genome assembly to date. The combined use of the Dash cryptocurrency, DAOs, and Pacific Biosciences sequencing delivered a 1.03 Gb genome with a N50 of 665Kb in 77 days from funding to public upload. This represents a 230 fold improvement in the contiguity of the first cannabis assemblies in 2011 and a 4 fold improvement over all cannabis assemblies to date. 34Gb ofadditional sequencing pushed the assembly to a N50 of 3.8Mb. Hi-C data from Phase Genomics further scaffolded the assembly to 35 contigs at an N50 of 74Mb but requires additional curation. The genome is partially phased and larger than previously reported (2N : 1.33Gb). The CBCA, THCA and CBDA synthase gene clusters have been phased onto respective contigs demonstrating tandem repeat expansions.
Journal: OSF
DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/N98GP
Year: 2018