A chromosome-level genome assembly for Erianthus fulvus provides insights into its biofuel potential and facilitates breeding for improvement of sugarcane

• DOI: 10.1016/j.xplc.2023.100562
• Publication Date: 2023-02-22T04:47:17Z
• Authors: Ling Kui; Aasim Majeed; Xianhong Wang; Zijiang Yang; Jian Chen; Lilian He; Yining Di; Xuzhen Li; Zhenfeng Qian; Yinming Jiao; Guoyun Wang; Lufeng Liu; Rong Xu; Shujie Gu; Qinghui Yang; Shuying Chen; Hongbo Lou; Yu Meng; Linyan Xie; Fu Xu; Qingqing Shen; Amit Singh; Karl Gruber; Yunbing Pan; Tingting Hao; Yang Dong; Fusheng Li
• Keywords: Genome size; Comparative Genomics

Erianthus produces substantial biomass, exhibits a good Brix value, and shows wide environmental adaptability, making it potential biofuel plant. In contrast to closely related sorghum sugarcane, can grow in degraded soils, thus releasing pressure on agricultural lands used for production. However, the lack of genomic resources hinders its genetic improvement, limiting present study, we generated chromosome-scale reference genome fulvus Nees. The size estimated by flow cytometry was 937 Mb, assembled 902 covering 96.26% size. A total 35 065 protein-coding genes were predicted, 67.89% found be repetitive. recent whole-genome duplication occurred approximately 74.10 million years ago E. genome. Phylogenetic analysis showed that is evolutionarily closer S. spontaneum diverged after bicolor. Three 10 chromosomes formed through rearrangements ancestral chromosomes. reconstruction Saccharum complex revealed polyphyletic origin sister relationship with sp., excluding arundinaceum. On basis four amino acid residues provide substrate specificity, SWEET proteins classified as mono- disaccharide sugar transporters. Ortho-QTL identified biofuel-related traits may aid rapid screening populations enhance breeding programs improved results this study valuable insights aimed at improving production enhancing sugarcane introgression programs.