Draft Genomes of Two Artocarpus Plants, Jackfruit (A. heterophyllus) and Breadfruit (A. altilis)

Abstract

Two of the most economically important plants in the Artocarpus genus are jackfruit (A. heterophyllus Lam.) and breadfruit (A. altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg). Both species are long-lived trees that have been cultivated for thousands of years in their native regions. Today they are grown throughout tropical to subtropical areas as an important source of starch and other valuable nutrients. There are hundreds of breadfruit varieties that are native to Oceania, of which the most commonly distributed types are seedless triploids. Jackfruit is likely native to the Western Ghats of India and produces one of the largest tree-borne fruit structures (reaching up to 45 kg). To-date, there is limited genomic information for these two economically important species. Here, we generated 273 Gb and 227 Gb of raw data from jackfruit and breadfruit, respectively. The high-quality reads from jackfruit were assembled into 162,440 scaffolds totaling 982 Mb with 35,858 genes. Similarly, the breadfruit reads were assembled into 180,971 scaffolds totaling 833 Mb with 34,010 genes. A total of 2822 and 2034 expanded gene families were found in jackfruit and breadfruit, respectively, enriched in pathways including starch and sucrose metabolism, photosynthesis, and others. The copy number of several starch synthesis-related genes were found to be increased in jackfruit and breadfruit compared to closely-related species, and the tissue-specific expression might imply their sugar-rich and starch-rich characteristics. Overall, the publication of high-quality genomes for jackfruit and breadfruit provides information about their specific composition and the underlying genes involved in sugar and starch metabolism.

High-quality reference genome sequences of two Cannaceae species provide insights into the evolution of Cannaceae

“…In addition, their amylose content makes them a potential source of resistant starch and dietary fiber ( Fonseca-Santanilla and Betancourt-López, 2021 ). Previous studies have proved that the number of copies of starch synthesis-related genes in starch-rich plants has increased significantly ( Sahu et al, 2020 ). We arrived at the same conclusion in this study after performing gene enrichment analysis for unique genes in C. edulis and C. indica .…”

Genome-Wide Analysis of the MADS-Box Gene Family in Holoparasitic Plants (Balanophora subcupularis and Balanophora fungosa var. globosa)

“…Reports on the evolutionary mechanism of phenotypic adaptation indicated gene loss can be beneficial by providing an evolutionary mechanism for phenotypic adaptation ( Albalat and Cañestro, 2016 ; Sahu et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2022 ). Studies on the flowering mechanism of C. australis show that in order to ensure flowering, dodder eavesdropped on the flowering signal of the host and kept the synchronization of flowering ( Sun et al, 2018 ; Shen et al, 2020 ).…”

Genomic Approaches for Improvement of Tropical Fruits: Fruit Quality, Shelf Life and Nutrient Content

“…The assembled genome contained 51% of repeat sequences and 35,858 protein coding genes. The gene families in starch synthesis were found to be more expanded in Artocarpus heterophyllus than its related species [233] (Table 4). In dragon fruit, grouping of accessions with pink and white pulp colours has separately been achieved through ISSR [247,248] and SSR markers [249].…”

“…The assembled genome contained 51% of repeat sequences and 35,858 protein coding genes. The gene families in starch synthesis were found to be more expanded in Artocarpus heterophyllus than its related species [ 233 ] ( Table 4 ).…”