Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), recognized as the world’s fifth most significant cereal crop, plays an essential role as a model for genomic comparison and functional genomics of C4 plants. It is extensively cultivated in semi-arid and arid regions for various uses, including food, sugar/syrup, animal feed, fiber, biofuel, and even Chinese baijiu, displaying a wide range of morphological and physiological variations. Recent genomic studies on various crops have shown that a complete telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assembly can significantly improve our understanding of genomic architecture, fundamental biology, and practical agricultural applications. However, many sequences in the current reference genome (BTx623) remain unknown. Therefore, this study used the HiFi+ONT+HiC+NGS strategy to update the T2T assembly of the BTx623 genome, obtaining a gap-free T2T genome of BTx623, which plays an important role in understanding the complex regional characteristics of the sorghum genome and in exploring and applying important functional genes.
Plant Communications. 2024 Jun 10;5(6):100977, IF=10.5.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xplc.2024.100977