Chromosome-scale genomes of wild and cultivated Morinda officinalis.

Abstract

Morinda officinalis is a renowned medicinal and edible plant native to southern China and northern Vietnam. Its dried roots, known as bajitian are extensively used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various ailments. Driven by the increasing market demand, the wild populations of M. officinalis have been threatened, leading to the surge of cultivated varieties. Here, we present the chromosome-scale genome assemblies of both wild and cultivated M. officinalis, achieved through a combination of nanopore long-read sequencing and Hi-C technology, resulting in high-quality genomes for the wild (423 Mb) and cultivated (425 Mb) M. officinalis, boasting scaffold N50 values of 5.91 Mb and 10.99 Mb, respectively. Additionally, we predicted 31,308 and 29,528 protein-coding genes in wild and cultivated M. officinalis, respectively. Approximately 96.3% and 97.8% of the assembled sequences were anchored to 11 pseudo-chromosomes for the wild and cultivated genomes. The high-quality chromosome-scale genomes of M. officinalis could serve as a valuable resource for understanding the genetic basis of medicinal trait variations, improving cultivation practices, and conserving this ecologically and economically important species.