Draft genome sequence of Indian mulberry (Moms indica) provides a resource for functional and translational genomics

Mulberry is an important crop plant for the sericulture industry. Here, we report high-quality genome sequence of a cultivated Indian mulberry (Morns indica cv K2) obtained by combining data from four different technologies, including Illumina, single-molecule real-time sequencing, chromosome conformation capture and optical mapping, with a gene completeness of 96.5%. Based on the genome sequence, we identified 49.2% of repetitive DNA and 27,435 high-confidence protein-coding genes with >90% of them supported by transcript evidence. A comparative analysis with other plant genomes identified 4.8% of species-specific genes in the M. indica genome. Transcriptome profiling revealed tissue-specific and differential expression across multiple accessions of similar to 4.7% and 2-5% of protein-coding genes, respectively, implicated in diverse biological processes. Whole genome resequencing of 21 accessions/species revealed similar to 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms and similar to 0.2 million insertions/deletions. These data and results provide a comprehensive resource to accelerate the genomics research in mulberry for its improvement.

Automated summary

In this study, a high-quality genome sequence of a cultivated Indian mulberry was obtained using multiple technologies. It identified repetitive DNA and a large number of protein-coding genes supported by transcript evidence. Comparative analysis with other plant genomes revealed species-specific genes in the mulberry genome. Transcriptome profiling showed tissue-specific and differential expression of these genes across different accessions and implicated in various biological processes.