A de novo genome assembly of Solanum bulbocastanum Dun., a Mexican diploid species reproductively isolated from the A-genome species, including cultivated potatoes.

Potato and its wild relatives are distributed mainly in the Mexican highlands and central Andes of South America. The South American A-genome species, including cultivated potatoes, are reproductively isolated from Mexican diploid species. Whole-genome sequencing has disclosed genome structure and similarity, mostly in cultivated potatoes and their closely related species. In this study, we generated a chromosome-scale assembly of the genome of a Mexican diploid species, Solanum bulbocastanum Dun., using PacBio long-read sequencing, optical mapping, and Hi-C scaffolding technologies. The final sequence assembly consisted of 737.9 Mb, among which 647.0 Mb were anchored to the 12 chromosomes. Compared with chromosome-scale assemblies of S. lycopersicum (tomato), S. etuberosum (non-tuber-bearing species with E-genome), S. verrucosum, S. chacoense, S. multidissectum, and S. phureja (all four are A-genome species), the S. bulbocastnum genome was the shortest. It contained fewer transposable elements (56.2%) than A-genome species. A cluster analysis was performed based on pairwise ratios of syntenic regions among the seven chromosome-scale assemblies, showing that the A-genome species were first clustered as a distinct group. Then, this group was clustered with S. bulbocastanum. Sequence similarity in 1,624 single-copy orthologous gene groups among 36 Solanum species and clones separated S. bulbocastanum as a specific group, including other Mexican diploid species, from the A-genome species. Therefore, the S. bulbocastanum genome differs in genome structure and gene sequences from the A-genome species. These findings provide important insights into understanding and utilizing the genetic diversity of S. bulbocastanum and the other Mexican diploid species in potato breeding.

A de novo genome assembly of Solanum verrucosum Schlechtendal, a Mexican diploid species geographically isolated from other diploid A-genome species of potato relatives.

There are over 100 known species of cultivated potatoes and their wild relatives. Many of these species, including cultivated potatoes, share the A genome; these species are mainly distributed in South America and are reproductively isolated from Mexican diploid species. The only diploid A-genome species distributed in Mexico is Solanum verrucosum Schlechtendal, which is also a maternal progenitor of Mexican polyploid species. In this study, we constructed a high-quality de novo assembly of the S. verrucosum genome using PacBio long-read sequencing and Hi-C scaffolding technologies. A monohaploid clone (2n = x = 12) of S. verrucosum was used to reduce assembly difficulty due to the heterozygous nature of the species. The final sequence assembly consisted of 780.2 Mb of sequence, 684.0 Mb of which were anchored to the 12 chromosomes, with a scaffold N50 of 55.2 Mb. Putative centromeres were identified using publicly available data obtained via chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing against a centromere-specific histone 3 protein. Transposable elements accounted for approximately 61.8% (482.1 Mb) of the genome, and 46,904 genes were functionally annotated. High gene synteny and similarity were revealed among the genomes of S. verrucosum, Solanum commersonii, Solanum chacoense, Solanum phureja, Solanum tuberosum, and Solanum lycopersicum. The reference-quality S. verrucosum genome will provide new insights into the evolution of Mexican polyploid species and contribute to potato breeding programs.