Abstract
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world's most important non-grain food crop and is central to global food security. It is clonally propagated, highly heterozygous, autotetraploid, and suffers acute inbreeding depression. Here we use a homozygous doubled-monoploid potato clone to sequence and assemble 86% of the 844-megabase genome. We predict 39,031 protein-coding genes and present evidence for at least two genome duplication events indicative of a palaeopolyploid origin. As the first genome sequence of an asterid, the potato genome reveals 2,642 genes specific to this large angiosperm clade. We also sequenced a heterozygous diploid clone and show that gene presence/absence variants and other potentially deleterious mutations occur frequently and are a likely cause of inbreeding depression. Gene family expansion, tissue-specific expression and recruitment of genes to new pathways contributed to the evolution of tuber development. The potato genome sequence provides a platform for genetic improvement of this vital crop.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 189-95 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 475 |
Issue number | 7355 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Print publication - 10 Jul 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
©2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reservedKeywords
- Evolution, Molecular
- Gene Duplication
- Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
- Genes, Plant/genetics
- Genetic Variation
- Genome, Plant/genetics
- Genomics
- Haplotypes/genetics
- Heterozygote
- Homozygote
- Immunity, Innate
- Inbreeding
- Molecular Sequence Annotation
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Plant Diseases/genetics
- Ploidies
- Solanum tuberosum/genetics