Genomic resources for Australian alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) genomics: reformatted reference genome, annotated variants, gene presence-absence and diversity analysis from genome re-sequencing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), a globally significant forage crop, has faced limited breeding progress in recent decades. Several challenges hinder genetic gain in alfalfa, including its status as an outbreeding tetraploid species with pronounced inbreeding depression, high parent numbers in synthetic crosses resulting in limited genetic differentiation between cultivars and a lack of genomic resources to advance genomic breeding techniques in the species.

Results

We aim to address some of these limitations by generating genomic resources for alfalfa improvement, including reformatting an allele-aware reference genome to remove duplicate haplotypes while retaining presence absence variation, genome annotation identifying genes and functional elements, SNP discovery

SUBMITTER: Malmberg MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12822192 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature