De novo assembly and functional annotation of the nervous system transcriptome in the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus

Coral Reefs - The spiny lobster Panulirus argus is an ecologically relevant species in shallow water coral reefs and the target of the most lucrative fishery in the greater Caribbean region. This...     

De novo sequencing and initial annotation of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) genome

The Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) is a member of the rodent family that displays several features not found in mice or rats, including sensory specializations and social patterns more similar to those in humans. These features have made gerbils a valuable animal for research studies of auditory and visual processing, brain development, learning and memory, and neurological disorders. Here, we report the whole gerbil annotated genome sequence, and identify important similarities and differences to the human and mouse genomes. We further analyze the chromosomal structure of eight genes with high relevance for controlling neural signaling and demonstrate a high degree of homology between these genes in mouse and gerbil. This homology increases the likelihood that individual genes can be rapidly identified in gerbil and used for genetic manipulations. The availability of the gerbil genome provides a foundation for advancing our knowledge towards understanding evolution, behavior and neural function in mammals.Accession numberThe Whole Genome Shotgun sequence data from this project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession NHTI00000000. The version described in this paper is version NHTI01000000. The fragment reads, and mate pair reads have been deposited in the Sequence Read Archive under BioSample accession SAMN06897401.     

De novo assembly of a wild pear (Pyrus betuleafolia) genome

China is the origin and evolutionary centre of Oriental pears. Pyrus betuleafolia is a wild species native to China and distributed in the northern region, and it is widely used as rootstock. Here, we report the de novo assembly of the genome of P. betuleafolia‐Shanxi Duli using an integrated strategy that combines PacBio sequencing, BioNano mapping and chromosome conformation capture (Hi‐C) sequencing. The genome assembly size was 532.7 Mb, with a contig N50 of 1.57 Mb. A total of 59 552 protein‐coding genes and 247.4 Mb of repetitive sequences were annotated for this genome. The expansion genes in P. betuleafolia were significantly enriched in secondary metabolism, which may account for the organism's considerable environmental adaptability. An alignment analysis of orthologous genes showed that fruit size, sugar metabolism and transport, and photosynthetic efficiency were positively selected in Oriental pear during domestication. A total of 573 nucleotide‐binding site (NBS)‐type resistance gene analogues (RGAs) were identified in the P. betuleafolia genome, 150 of which are TIR‐NBS‐LRR (TNL)‐type genes, which represented the greatest number of TNL‐type genes among the published Rosaceae genomes and explained the strong disease resistance of this wild species. The study of flavour metabolism‐related genes showed that the anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) metabolic pathway affected the astringency of pear fruit and that sorbitol transporter (SOT) transmembrane transport may be the main factor affecting the accumulation of soluble organic matter. This high‐quality P. betuleafolia genome provides a valuable resource for the utilization of wild pear in fundamental pear studies and breeding.     

火龙果转录组测序、基因表达与功能分析

利用高通量测序技术对火龙果（Hylocereus undulatus Britt）红肉品种‘大红二号’的花芽、果实和枝条不同发育阶段的基因表达进行研究。结果显示,转录组测序共获得468.68 Gb原始数据（Raw data）,从头组装获得239 152条转录本和162 519条unigene,约53.74%的unigene得到注释。分别在43 506条和16 251条unigene中检测到600 283个SNP位点和56 147个SSR位点。基因表达分析结果表明,在火龙果不同组织Fl510、Fl513、Fl514、Fl518、F711、F715、S513、S419中分别有31、7、5、152、17、63、17、8个特异表达的unigene。通过GO和KEGG富集分析,发现了一些组织特异的GO条目和代谢通路,如在Fl510中富集的类萜骨架生物合成代谢通路等。本研究还对参与花发育的候选基因进行了鉴定和表达分析,他们包括COL基因、FT-like基因、分生组织决定基因和器官决定基因等。     

火龙果转录组测序、基因表达与功能分析

利用高通量测序技术对火龙果(Hylocereus undulatus Britt)红肉品种‘大红二号’的花芽、果实和枝条不同发育阶段的基因表达进行研究。结果显示,转录组测序共获得468.68 Gb原始数据(Raw data),从头组装获得239 152条转录本和162 519条unigene,约53.74%的unigene得到注释。分别在43 506条和16 251条unigene中检测到600 283个SNP位点和56 147个SSR位点。基因表达分析结果表明,在火龙果不同组织Fl510、Fl513、Fl514、Fl518、F711、F715、S513、S419中分别有31、7、5、152、17、63、17、8个特异表达的unigene。通过GO和KEGG富集分析,发现了一些组织特异的GO条目和代谢通路,如在Fl510中富集的类萜骨架生物合成代谢通路等。本研究还对参与花发育的候选基因进行了鉴定和表达分析,他们包括COL基因、FT-like基因、分生组织决定基因和器官决定基因等。     

Decoding the oak genome: public release of sequence data,assembly, annotation and publication strategies

The 1.5 Gbp/2C genome of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) has been sequenced. A strategy was established for dealing with the challenges imposed by the sequencing of such a large, complex and highly heterozygous genome by a whole‐genome shotgun (WGS) approach, without the use of costly and time‐consuming methods, such as fosmid or BAC clone‐based hierarchical sequencing methods. The sequencing strategy combined short and long reads. Over 49 million reads provided by Roche 454 GS‐FLX technology were assembled into contigs and combined with shorter Illumina sequence reads from paired‐end and mate‐pair libraries of different insert sizes, to build scaffolds. Errors were corrected and gaps filled with Illumina paired‐end reads and contaminants detected, resulting in a total of 17 910 scaffolds (>2 kb) corresponding to 1.34 Gb. Fifty per cent of the assembly was accounted for by 1468 scaffolds (N50 of 260 kb). Initial comparison with the phylogenetically related Prunus persica gene model indicated that genes for 84.6% of the proteins present in peach (mean protein coverage of 90.5%) were present in our assembly. The second and third steps in this project are genome annotation and the assignment of scaffolds to the oak genetic linkage map. In accordance with the Bermuda and Fort Lauderdale agreements and the more recent Toronto Statement, the oak genome data have been released into public sequence repositories in advance of publication. In this presubmission paper, the oak genome consortium describes its principal lines of work and future directions for analyses of the nature, function and evolution of the oak genome.