Sequencing and de Novo Assembly of Abaca (Musa textilis Nee) var. Abuab Genome

Abaca (Musa textilis Nee), an indigenous crop to the Philippines, is known to be the source of the strongest natural fiber. Despite its huge economic contributions, research on crop improvement is limited due to the lack of genomic data. In this study, the whole genome of the abaca var. Abuab was sequenced using Illumina Novaseq 6000 and Pacific Biosciences Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequel. The genome size of Abuab was estimated to be 616 Mbp based on total k-mer number and volume peak. Its genome was assembled at 65x depth, mapping 95.28% of the estimated genome size. BUSCO analysis recovered 78.2% complete BUSCO genes. A total of 33,277 gene structures were predicted which is comparable to the number of predicted genes from recently assembled Musa spp. genomes. A total of 330 Mbp repetitive elements were also mined, accounting to 53.6% of the genome length. Here we report the sequencing and genome assembly of the abaca var. Abuab that will facilitate gene discovery for crop improvement and an indispensable source for genetic diversity studies in Musa.

Automated summary

The study sequenced and assembled the genome of a Philippine indigenous crop, abaca, revealing genomic features, repetitive elements, and predicted gene structures, which will facilitate gene discovery for crop improvement and genetic diversity studies.