Taro Genome Assembly and Linkage Map Reveal QTLs for Resistance to Taro Leaf Blight.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a food staple widely cultivated in the humid tropics of Asia, Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean. One of the greatest threats to taro production is Taro Leaf Blight caused by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora colocasiae Here we describe a de novo taro genome assembly and use it to analyze sequence data from a Taro Leaf Blight resistant mapping population. The genome was assembled from linked-read sequences (10x Genomics; ∼60x coverage) and gap-filled and scaffolded with contigs assembled from Oxford Nanopore Technology long-reads and linkage map results. The haploid assembly was 2.45 Gb total, with a maximum contig length of 38 Mb and scaffold N50 of 317,420 bp. A comparison of family-level (Araceae) genome features reveals the repeat content of taro to be 82%, >3.5x greater than in great duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza), 23%. Both genomes recovered a similar percent of Benchmarking Universal Single-copy Orthologs, 80% and 84%, based on a 3,236 gene database for monocot plants. A greater number of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat disease resistance genes were present in genomes of taro than the duckweed, ∼391 vs. ∼70 (∼182 and ∼46 complete). The mapping population data revealed 16 major linkage groups with 520 markers, and 10 quantitative trait loci (QTL) significantly associated with Taro Leaf Blight disease resistance. The genome sequence of taro enhances our understanding of resistance to TLB, and provides markers that may accelerate breeding programs. This genome project may provide a template for developing genomic resources in other understudied plant species.

Aerenchyma and barrier to radial oxygen loss are formed in roots of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) propagules under flooded conditions.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is cultivated primarily for its starchy underground stem (i.e., corm). It is adapted to both upland and wetland (i.e., flooded) conditions. Although taro is exposed to hypoxia that occurs in waterlogged soil, the mechanisms of its adaptation to hypoxia were unknown. To clarify the below-ground adaptation of taro to wetland conditions, we grew five taro cultivars/landraces hydroponically for 8 days under hypoxic conditions (n = 3) and analyzed: (1) the length of the longest root that emerged from the vegetative propagule; (2) aerenchyma (i.e., tissues containing air spaces); and (3) oxidation conditions around sides of root tips. Wild taro Aweu and the Chinese cultivar Bun-long had significantly longer roots than the Hawaiian cultivars/landraces Maui Lehua, Pi'i'ali'i, and Ele'ele Naioea (P < 0.05). Formation of aerenchyma, or air spaces that allow effective transportation of oxygen under hypoxic conditions, was observed consistently in roots of Aweu and Bun-long, but only occasionally in those of Hawaiian cultivars/landraces. In all cultivars/landraces, a pattern of radial oxygen leakage was detected only near root tips. In summary, taro appears to form aerenchyma and oxidize the rhizosphere around root tips under wetland conditions.

Phylogenetic Relationships, Breeding Implications, and Cultivation History of Hawaiian Taro (Colocasia Esculenta) Through Genome-Wide SNP Genotyping.

Taro, Colocasia esculenta, is one of the world's oldest root crops and is of particular economic and cultural significance in Hawai'i, where historically more than 150 different landraces were grown. We developed a genome-wide set of more than 2400 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from 70 taro accessions of Hawaiian, South Pacific, Palauan, and mainland Asian origins, with several objectives: 1) uncover the phylogenetic relationships between Hawaiian and other Pacific landraces, 2) shed light on the history of taro cultivation in Hawai'i, and 3) develop a tool to discriminate among Hawaiian and other taros. We found that almost all existing Hawaiian landraces fall into 5 monophyletic groups that are largely consistent with the traditional Hawaiian classification based on morphological characters, for example, leaf shape and petiole color. Genetic diversity was low within these clades but considerably higher between them. Population structure analyses further indicated that the diversification of taro in Hawai'i most likely occurred by a combination of frequent somatic mutation and occasional hybridization. Unexpectedly, the South Pacific accessions were found nested within the clades mainly composed of Hawaiian accessions, rather than paraphyletic to them. This suggests that the origin of clades identified here preceded the colonization of Hawai'i and that early Polynesian settlers brought taro landraces from different clades with them. In the absence of a sequenced genome, this marker set provides a valuable resource towards obtaining a genetic linkage map and to study the genetic basis of phenotypic traits of interest to taro breeding such as disease resistance.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott).

Genetic engineering of taro is an effective method to improve taro quality and the resistance to various diseases of taro. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of taro is more efficient than the particle bombardment transformation method based on current research. The development of a regeneration system starting from taro shoot tip explants could produce dasheen mosaic virus (DsMV)-free plantlets. Highly regenerative calluses could be developed from DsMV-free, in vitro plantlets on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 2 mg/L BA and 1 mg/L NAA (M5 medium). The Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method is reported in this chapter. The highly regenerative calluses were selected and cocultivated with the Agrobacterium strain EHA105 harboring the binary vector PBI121 with either a rice chitinase gene chi11 or a wheat oxalate oxidase gene gf2.8. After cocultivation for 3-4 days, these calluses were transferred to selection medium (M5 medium) containing 50 mg/L Geneticin G418 and grown for 3 months in the dark. Transgenic shoot lines could be induced and selected on the MS medium containing 4 mg/L BA (M15 medium) and 50 mg/L Geneticin G418 for 3 months further in the light. Molecular analyses are used to confirm the stable transformation and expression of the disease resistance gene chi11 or gf2.8. Pathologic bioassays could be used to demonstrate whether the transgenic plants had increased disease resistance to taro pathogens Sclerotium rolfsii or Phytophthora colocasiae.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) with a rice chitinase gene for improved tolerance to a fungal pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii.

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is one of the most important crops in the Pacific Islands, however, taro yields have been declining in Hawaii over the past 30 years partly due to diseases caused by oomycete and fungal pathogens. In this study, an efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method for taro is first reported. In total, approximately 200 pieces (8 g) of embryogenic calluses were infected with the super-virulent A. tumefaciens strain EHA105 harboring the plant transformation plasmid pBI121/ricchi11 that contains the rice chitinase gene ricchi11. The presence and expression of the transgene ricchi11 in six independent transgenic lines was confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR). Southern blot analysis of the six independent lines indicated that three out of six (50%) had integrated a single copy of the transgene, and the other three lines had two or three copies of the transgene. Compared to the particle bombardment transformation of taro method, which was used in the previous studies, the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method obtained 43-fold higher transformation efficiency. In addition, these six transgenic lines via Agrobacterium may be more effective for transgene expression as a result of single-copy or low-copy insertion of the transgene than the single line with multiple copies of the transgene via particle bombardment. In a laboratory bioassay, all six transgenic lines exhibited increased tolerance to the fungal pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii, ranging from 42 to 63% reduction in lesion expansion.