Genome and time-of-day transcriptome of Wolffia australiana link morphological minimization with gene loss and less growth control.

ABSTRACT: Rootless plants in the genus Wolffia are some of the fastest growing known plants on Earth. Wolffia have a reduced body plan, primarily multiplying through a budding type of asexual reproduction. Here, we generated draft reference genomes for Wolffia australiana (Benth.) Hartog & Plas, which has the smallest genome size in the genus at 357 Mb and has a reduced set of predicted protein-coding genes at about 15,000. Comparison between multiple high-quality draft genome sequences from W. australiana clones confirmed loss of several hundred genes that are highly conserved among flowering plants, including genes involved in root developmental and light signaling pathways. Wolffia has also lost most of the conserved nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR)

SUBMITTER: Michael TP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7849404 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature