The Dogwood Genome Project: A Model for Woody Ornamental Genomics

山茱萸长期以来一直因其艳丽的花朵和细纹的木材而被种植。最近，随着美国对木本观赏植物需求的增长，山茱萸和相关绣球的市场价值也在增加。为了提高这些具有重要经济和文化意义的乔灌木的育种潜力，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，如花特征、抗病和胁迫反应。新的测序方法将在这个项目中结合起来，以产生山茱萸和绣球的第一个基因组序列，使研究团队能够识别新的标记和工具，用于培育感兴趣的性状。该团队将研究一些品种的山茱萸如何抵抗白粉病等破坏性疾病。这些信息将对苗圃行业很重要，并将促进对植物家族如何随着时间的推移适应和应对疾病的更广泛的理解。该项目将培训学生、教师和育种者，并将通过聘请公民科学家收集有关美国山茱萸的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(Cornus佛罗里达)品种阿巴拉契亚之春生成高质量的参考基因组组装和注释。该资源与亚洲狗牙根和大叶绣球的基因组序列和基因空间组合、转录组图谱和高密度遗传标记一起，将为狗牙根、绣球和其他木本观赏植物的研究和分子标记辅助育种提供基础。山茱萸和绣球属在被子植物系统发育中占有重要地位。建立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观赏植物比较基因组学研究的理想催化剂，包括菊科、茄科和旋花科的成员。此外，该项目还将通过对佛罗里达和库萨两个抗病和感病材料的mRNA和microRNA表达谱的比较分析，研究白粉病抗性的分子基础。所有基因组序列和其他数据将通过国家生物信息中心、iPlants Collaborative http://www.iplantcollaborative.org和Dryad Digital Repository 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.