In:
Horticulture Research, Oxford University Press (OUP)
Abstract:
Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is widely cultivated around the world for its seeds and flowers. The presence of linoleic acid (LA) in its seeds and hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) in its flowers are the crucial traits that enable safflower to be used for industrial and medicinal purposes. Understanding the genetic control of these traits is essential for optimizing the quality of safflower and its breeding. To further this research, we present a chromosome-scale assembly of the safflower genome called "Chuanhonghua 1", which was achieved using an integrated strategy combining Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, and Hi-C sequencing. We obtained a 1.17 Gb assembly with a contig N50 of 1.08 Mb, and all assembled sequences were assigned to 12 pseudochromosomes. Safflower's evolution involved the core eudicot γ-triplication event and a WGD event, which led to large-scale genomic rearrangements. Extensive genomic shuffling has occurred since the divergence of the ancestor of dicotyledons. We conducted metabolite and transcriptome profiles with time- and part-dependent changes and screened candidate genes that significantly contribute to seed lipids biosynthesis. We also analyzed key gene families that participate in LA and HSYA biosynthesis. Additionally, we re-sequenced 220 safflower lines and carried out GWAS using high-quality SNP data for eight collected agronomic traits. We identified SNPs related to important traits in safflower. Besides, the candidate gene HH_034464 (CtCGT1) was shown to be involved in the biosynthesis of HSYA. Overall, we provide a high-quality reference genome and elucidate the genetic basis of LA and HSYA biosynthesis in safflower. This vast amount of data will benefit further research for functional gene mining and breeding in safflower.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2052-7276
Language:
English
Publisher:
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2781828-7
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