Sequencing and de Novo Assembly of Abaca (Musa textilis Née) var. Abuab Genome.

Robert Gomez Atienza,Kennedy Trinidad Costales,Vermando Masinsin Aquino,Dapeng Zhang,Jayson Calundre Asunto,Rhosener Bhea Lu Koh,Leny Calano Galvez,Jose Leonido Catalla,Cris Francis Cortez Barbosa

doi:10.3390/genes12081202

Robert Gomez Atienza, Kennedy Trinidad Costales + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12081202

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Abstract

Abaca (Musa textilis Née), an indigenous crop to the Philippines, is known to be the source of the strongest natural fiber. Despite its huge economic contributions, research on crop improvement is limited due to the lack of genomic data. In this study, the whole genome of the abaca var. Abuab was sequenced using Illumina Novaseq 6000 and Pacific Biosciences Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequel. The genome size of Abuab was estimated to be 616 Mbp based on total k-mer number and volume peak. Its genome was assembled at 65× depth, mapping 95.28% of the estimated genome size. BUSCO analysis recovered 78.2% complete BUSCO genes. A total of 33,277 gene structures were predicted which is comparable to the number of predicted genes from recently assembled Musa spp. genomes. A total of 330 Mbp repetitive elements were also mined, accounting to 53.6% of the genome length. Here we report the sequencing and genome assembly of the abaca var. Abuab that will facilitate gene discovery for crop improvement and an indispensable source for genetic diversity studies in Musa.

Highlights

Accepted: 1 July 2021One of the major agricultural export commodities of the Philippines is the abaca (Musa textilis Née), a fiber crop widely distributed in the humid tropics, and is known to be indigenous to the Philippines [1,2]
We present an assembled whole genome sequence of abaca variety
The lack of genomic information on M. textilis has hindered the progression of molecular studies on the key components of fiber development, disease and stress resistance as well as the development of molecular markers to characterize different varieties of M

Summary

Introduction

One of the major agricultural export commodities of the Philippines is the abaca (Musa textilis Née), a fiber crop widely distributed in the humid tropics, and is known to be indigenous to the Philippines [1,2]. About 85% of the world market consumption for abaca fiber is supplied by the Philippines which generates a total of US$111.5 M earnings in 2018 [3]. The abaca plant is a close relative of the banana, belonging to the family Musaceae of the order Zingibareles [2]. The abaca plant can reach up to 10 feet with a base root stock of up to 20 inches in diameter and is slightly narrower than that of a banana. Most notable are the leaf sheaths arising from the base root stock which form the pseudostem from which the useful fibers are extracted [4]

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