The phased telomere-to-telomere reference genome of Musa acuminata, a main contributor to banana cultivars

Abstract

Musa acuminata is a main wild contributor to banana cultivars. Here, we reported a haplotype-resolved and telomere-to-telomere reference genome of M. acuminata by incorporating PacBio HiFi reads, Nanopore ultra-long reads, and Hi-C data. The genome size of the two haploid assemblies was estimated to be 469.83 Mb and 470.21 Mb, respectively. Multiple assessments confirmed the contiguity (contig N50: 16.53 Mb and 18.58 Mb; LAI: 20.18 and 19.48), completeness (BUSCOs: 98.57% and 98.57%), and correctness (QV: 45.97 and 46.12) of the genome. The repetitive sequences accounted for about half of the genome size. In total, 40,889 and 38,269 protein-coding genes were annotated in the two haploid assemblies, respectively, of which 9.56% and 3.37% were newly predicted. Genome comparison identified a large reciprocal translocation involving 3 Mb and 10 Mb from chromosomes 01 and 04 within M. acuminata. This reference genome of M. acuminata provides a valuable resource for further understanding of subgenome evolution of Musa species, and precise genetic improvement of banana.