The genomes of pecan and Chinese hickory provide insights into Carya evolution and nut nutrition.

Authors: Huang, Youjun and Xiao, Lihong and Zhang, Zhongren and Zhang, Rui and Wang, Zhengjia and Huang, Chunying and Huang, Ren and Luan, Yumeng and Fan, Tongqiang and Wang, Jianhua and Shen, Chen and Zhang, Shenmei and Wang, Xinwang and Randall, Jennifer and Zheng, Bingsong and Wu, Jiasheng and Zhang, Qixiang and Xia, Guohua and Xu, Chuanmei and Chen, Ming and Zhang, Liangsheng and Jiang, Wenkai and Gao, Lizhi and Chen, Zhiduan and Leslie, Charles A and Grauke, L J and Huang, Jianqin

Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) and Chinese hickory (C. cathayensis) are important commercially cultivated nut trees in the genus Carya (Juglandaceae), with high nutritional value and substantial health benefits.We obtained >187.22 and 178.87 gigabases of sequence, and ~288× and 248× genome coverage, to a pecan cultivar ("Pawnee") and a domesticated Chinese hickory landrace (ZAFU-1), respectively. The total assembly size is 651.31 megabases (Mb) for pecan and 706.43 Mb for Chinese hickory. Two genome duplication events before the divergence from walnut were found in these species. Gene family analysis highlighted key genes in biotic and abiotic tolerance, oil, polyphenols, essential amino acids, and B vitamins. Further analyses of reduced-coverage genome sequences of 16 Carya and 2 Juglans species provide additional phylogenetic perspective on crop wild relatives.Cooperative characterization of these valuable resources provides a window to their evolutionary development and a valuable foundation for future crop improvement. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Journal: GigaScience
DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giz036
Year: 2019

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