The Dogwood Genome Project: A Model for Woody Ornamental Genomics

山茱萸因其艳丽的花朵和纹理细密的木材而长期被种植。 最近，山茱萸和相关绣球花的市场价值随着美国对木本植物需求的增长而增加。为了提高这些经济和文化上重要的树木和灌木的育种潜力，科学家可以利用遗传学和先进的基因组学来研究关键的农艺性状，如花的特征，抗病性和应激反应。新的测序方法将结合在这个项目中，以产生山茱萸和绣球花的第一个基因组序列，使研究小组能够确定新的标记和工具，用于育种感兴趣的性状。该小组将研究一些开花山茱萸品种如何抵抗诸如白粉病等破坏性疾病。这些信息对苗圃行业非常重要，并将促进更广泛地了解植物家族如何随着时间的推移适应和应对疾病。该项目将培训学生、教师和育种者，并将通过让公民科学家参与收集美国山茱萸萌芽和开花时间的数据来接触公众。该项目将为开花山茱萸（佛罗里达山茱萸）栽培品种阿巴拉契亚春天产生高质量的参考基因组组装和注释。该资源，沿着基因组序列和基因空间组装的亚洲kousa山茱萸（C。kousa）和八仙花（Hydrangea macrophylla）的基因组图谱、转录组图谱和高密度遗传标记，将为山茱萸、八仙花等木本植物的研究和分子标记辅助育种奠定基础。山茱萸和八仙花属于山茱萸目，在被子植物的进化史上占有重要地位。建立开花山茱萸基因组的序列和分析方法将是推进其他被子植物木本植物（包括菊科，茄科和旋花科）比较基因组学的理想催化剂。此外，本项目还将通过比较分析抗病和感病品种的mRNA和microRNA表达谱，研究白粉病抗性的分子基础。佛罗里达和C.库萨所有基因组序列和其他数据将通过国家生物信息中心（NCBI）、iPlant Collaborative http://www.iplantcollaborative.org和Dryad数字存储库http://datadryad.org提供。

Dogwoods have long been cultivated for their showy flowers and fine-grained wood. Recently, the market value of dogwoods and related hydrangeas has increased as demand for woody ornamentals grows in the U.S. To advance the breeding potential of these economically and culturally important trees and shrubs, scientists can use genetics and advanced genomics to study critical agronomic traits such as flower characteristics, disease resistance and stress responses. New sequencing methods will be combined in this project to produce the first genome sequences for dogwoods and hydrangeas, allowing the research team to identify new markers and tools for breeding traits of interest. The team will study how some cultivars of flowering dogwood are resistant to damaging diseases such as powdery mildew. This information will be important to the nursery industry and will advance the broader understanding of how plant families have adapted and responded to diseases over time. The project will train students, teachers and breeders, and will reach out to the public by engaging citizen scientists to collect data on bud-break and flowering times for dogwoods in the U.S. This project will generate a high-­quality reference genome assembly and annotation for flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) cultivar Appalachian Spring. This resource, along with genome sequence and gene space assemblies for Asian kousa dogwood (C. kousa) and Hydrangea macrophylla, transcriptome atlases and high-density genetic markers, will provide a foundation for research and marker-assisted breeding for dogwoods, hydrangeas and other woody ornamentals. As members of the Cornales, dogwoods and hydrangea occupy a strategic position in the angiosperm phylogeny. Establishing sequences and analytical methods for the flowering dogwood genome will be an ideal catalyst for advancing comparative genomics across other angiosperm woody ornamentals, including members of the Asteraceae, Solanaceae and Convolvulaceae. In addition, the project will investigate the molecular basis of powdery mildew resistance through comparative analyses of mRNA and microRNA expression profiles in resistant and susceptible accessions of C. florida and C. kousa. All genome sequences and other data will be made available through the National Center of Biological Information (NCBI), the iPlant Collaborative http://www.iplantcollaborative.org and the Dryad Digital Repository http://datadryad.org.