Taro Genome Assembly and Linkage Map Reveal QTLs for Resistance to Taro Leaf Blight.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a food staple widely cultivated in the humid tropics of Asia, Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean. One of the greatest threats to taro production is Taro Leaf Blight caused by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora colocasiae Here we describe a de novo taro genome assembly and use it to analyze sequence data from a Taro Leaf Blight resistant mapping population. The genome was assembled from linked-read sequences (10x Genomics; ∼60x coverage) and gap-filled and scaffolded with contigs assembled from Oxford Nanopore Technology long-reads and linkage map results. The haploid assembly was 2.45 Gb total, with a maximum contig length of 38 Mb and scaffold N50 of 317,420 bp. A comparison of family-level (Araceae) genome features reveals the repeat content of taro to be 82%, >3.5x greater than in great duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza), 23%. Both genomes recovered a similar percent of Benchmarking Universal Single-copy Orthologs, 80% and 84%, based on a 3,236 gene database for monocot plants. A greater number of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat disease resistance genes were present in genomes of taro than the duckweed, ∼391 vs. ∼70 (∼182 and ∼46 complete). The mapping population data revealed 16 major linkage groups with 520 markers, and 10 quantitative trait loci (QTL) significantly associated with Taro Leaf Blight disease resistance. The genome sequence of taro enhances our understanding of resistance to TLB, and provides markers that may accelerate breeding programs. This genome project may provide a template for developing genomic resources in other understudied plant species.

Bellinger MR ，Paudel R ，Starnes S ，Kambic L ，Kantar MB ，Wolfgruber T ，Lamour K ，Geib S ，Sim S ，Miyasaka SC ，Helmkampf M ，Shintaku M ... -  《G3-Genes Genomes Genetics》

Genome Sequence Resource of Phytophthora colocasiae from China Using Nanopore Sequencing Technology.

Wang Z ，Bao J ，Lv L ，Lin L ，Li Z ，Shi M ，Huang Y ，Wang R ，Li B ，Liu P ，Chen Q ... -  《PLANT DISEASE》

First Report of Leaf Blight of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Caused by Phytophthora colocasiae in Ghana.

Omane E ，Oduro KA ，Cornelius EW ，Opoku IY ，Akrofi AY ，Sharma K ，Kumar PL ，Bandyopadhyay R ... -  《PLANT DISEASE》

A high-quality genome of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott), one of the world's oldest crops.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.), Schott), from the Araceae family, is one of the oldest crops with important edible, medicinal, nutritional and economic value. Taro is a highly polymorphic species including diverse genotypes adapted to a broad range of environments, but the taro genome has rarely been investigated. Here, a high-quality chromosome-level genome of C. esculenta was assembled using data sequenced by Illumina, PacBio and Nanopore platforms. The assembled genome size was 2,405 Mb with a contig N50 of 400.0 kb and a scaffold N50 of 159.4 Mb. In total, 2,311 Mb (96.09%) of the contig sequences was anchored onto 14 chromosomes to form pseudomolecules, and 2,126 Mb (88.43%) was annotated as repetitive sequences. Of the 28,695 predicted protein-coding genes, 26,215 genes (91.4%) could be functionally annotated. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis using 769 genes, C. esculenta and Spirodela polyrhiza were placed on one branch of the tree that diverged approximately 73.23 million years ago. The synteny analyses showed that there have been two whole-genome duplication events in C. esculenta separated by a relatively short gap. According to comparative genome analysis, a larger number (1,189) of distinct gene families and long terminal repeats were enriched in C. esculenta. Our high-quality taro genome will provide valuable resources for further genetic, ecological and evolutionary analyses of taro or other species in the Araceae.

Yin J ，Jiang L ，Wang L ，Han X ，Guo W ，Li C ，Zhou Y ，Denton M ，Zhang P ... -  《-》

Genome Sequence Resource for the Oomycete Taro Pathogen Phytophthora colocasiae.

Vetukuri RR ，Kushwaha SK ，Sen D ，Whisson SC ，Lamour KH ，Grenville-Briggs LJ ... -  《MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS》