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Article|01 May 2021|OPEN
The genome of the warm-season turfgrass African bermudagrass (Cynodon transvaalensis)
Fengchao Cui1 , Xiaoxia Dai1 , Nan Hang1 , Xunzhong Zhang2 , Xiangfeng Wang3 , , Kehua Wang1 , , Geli Taier1 and Manli Li,4
1Department of Turfgrass Science and Engineering, College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
2School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
3National Maize Improvement Center, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100913, China
4Department of Breeding and Seed Science, College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: xwang@cau.edu.cn,kehwang@cau.edu.cn

Horticulture Research 8,
Article number: 93 (2021)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-021-00519-w
Views: 817

Received: 30 Sep 2020
Revised: 02 Feb 2021
Accepted: 06 Feb 2021
Published online: 01 May 2021

Abstract

Cynodon species can be used for multiple purposes and have high economic and ecological significance. However, the genetic basis of the favorable agronomic traits of Cynodon species is poorly understood, partially due to the limited availability of genomic resources. In this study, we report a chromosome-scale genome assembly of a diploid Cynodon species, C. transvaalensis, obtained by combining Illumina and Nanopore sequencing, BioNano, and Hi-C. The assembly contains 282 scaffolds (~423.42 Mb, N50 = 5.37 Mb), which cover ~93.2% of the estimated genome of C. transvaalensis (~454.4 Mb). Furthermore, 90.48% of the scaffolds (~383.08 Mb) were anchored to nine pseudomolecules, of which the largest was 60.78 Mb in length. Evolutionary analysis along with transcriptome comparison provided a preliminary genomic basis for the adaptation of this species to tropical and/or subtropical climates, typically with dry summers. The genomic resources generated in this study will not only facilitate evolutionary studies of the Chloridoideae subfamily, in particular, the Cynodonteae tribe, but also facilitate functional genomic research and genetic breeding in Cynodon species for new leading turfgrass cultivars in the future.