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Teleost fishes, which are the largest and most diverse group of living vertebrates, have a rich history of ancient and recent polyploidy. Previous studies of allotetraploid common carp and goldfish (cyprinids) reported a dominant subgenome, which is more expressed and exhibits biased gene retention. However, the underlying mechanisms contributing to observed subgenome dominance remains poorly understood. Here we report high-quality genomes of twenty-one cyprinids to investigate the origin and subsequent subgenome evolution patterns following three independent allopolyploidy events. We identify the closest extant relatives of the diploid progenitor species, investigate genetic and epigenetic differences among subgenomes, and conclude that observed subgenome dominance patterns are likely due to a combination of maternal dominance and transposable element densities in each polyploid. These findings provide an important foundation to understanding subgenome dominance patterns observed in teleost fishes, and ultimately the role of polyploidy in contributing to evolutionary innovations.

Model species continue to underpin groundbreaking plant science research. At the same time, the phylogenetic resolution of the land plant Tree of Life continues to improve. The intersection of these two research paths creates a unique opportunity to further extend the usefulness of model species across larger taxonomic groups. Here we promote the utility of the Arabidopsis thaliana model species, especially the ability to connect its genetic and functional resources, to species across the entire Brassicales order. We focus on the utility of using genomics and phylogenomics to bridge the evolution and diversification of several traits across the Brassicales to the resources in Arabidopsis, thereby extending scope from a model species by establishing a model clade. These Brassicales-wide traits are discussed in the context of both the model species Arabidopsis thaliana and the family Brassicaceae. We promote the utility of such a model clade and make suggestions for building global networks to support future studies in the model order Brassicales.

Anthracnose fruit rot (AFR), caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum fioriniae, is among the most destructive and widespread fruit disease of blueberry, impacting both yield and overall fruit quality. Blueberry cultivars have highly variable resistance against AFR. To date, this pathogen is largely controlled by applying various fungicides; thus, a more cost-effective and environmentally conscious solution for AFR is needed. Here we report three quantitative trait loci associated with AFR resistance in northern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Candidate genes within these genomic regions are associated with the biosynthesis of flavonoids (e.g. anthocyanins) and resistance against pathogens. Furthermore, we examined gene expression changes in fruits following inoculation with Colletotrichum in a resistant cultivar, which revealed an enrichment of significantly differentially expressed genes associated with certain specialized metabolic pathways (e.g. flavonol biosynthesis) and pathogen resistance. Using non-targeted metabolite profiling, we identified a flavonol glycoside with properties consistent with a quercetin rhamnoside as a compound exhibiting significant abundance differences among the most resistant and susceptible individuals from the genetic mapping population. Further analysis revealed that this compound exhibits significant abundance differences among the most resistant and susceptible individuals when analyzed as two groups. However, individuals within each group displayed considerable overlapping variation in this compound, suggesting that its abundance may only be partially associated with resistance against C. fioriniae. These findings should serve as a powerful resource that will enable breeding programs to more easily develop new cultivars with superior resistance to AFR and as the basis of future research studies.

The Gene Balance Hypothesis (GBH) proposes that selection acts on the dosage (i.e. copy number) of genes within dosage-sensitive portions of networks, pathways, and protein complexes to maintain balanced stoichiometry of interacting proteins, because perturbations to stoichiometric balance can result in reduced fitness. This selection has been called dosage balance selection. Dosage balance selection is also hypothesized to constrain expression responses to dosage changes, making dosage-sensitive genes (those encoding members of interacting proteins) experience more similar expression changes. In allopolyploids, where whole-genome duplication involves hybridization of diverged lineages, organisms often experience homoeologous exchanges (HEs) that recombine, duplicate, and delete homoeologous regions of the genome and alter the expression of homoeologous gene pairs. Although the GBH makes predictions about the expression response to HEs, they have not been empirically tested. We used genomic and transcriptomic data from six resynthesized, isogenic Brassica napus lines over ten generations to identify HEs, analyzed expression responses, and tested for patterns of genomic imbalance. Groups of dosage-sensitive genes had less variable expression responses to HEs than dosage-insensitive genes, a sign that their relative dosage is constrained. This difference was absent for homoeologous pairs whose expression was biased toward the BnA subgenome. Finally, the expression response to HEs was more variable than the response to WGD, suggesting HEs create genomic imbalance. These findings expand our knowledge of the impact of dosage balance selection on genome evolution and potentially connect patterns in polyploid genomes over time; from homoeolog expression bias to duplicate gene retention.

Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata) is an ancient crop with remarkable stress resilience and a desirable seed fatty acid profile for biofuel uses. Brassica carinata is one of six Brassica species that share three major genomes from three diploid species (AA, BB, and CC) that spontaneously hybridized in a pairwise manner to form three allotetraploid species (AABB, AACC, and BBCC). Of the genomes of these species, that of B. carinata is the least understood. Here, we report a chromosome scale 1.31-Gbp genome assembly with 156.9-fold sequencing coverage for B. carinata, completing the reference genomes comprising the classic Triangle of U, a classical theory of the evolutionary relationships among these six species. Our assembly provides insights into the hybridization event that led to the current B. carinata genome and the genomic features that gave rise to the superior agronomic traits of B. carinata. Notably, we identified an expansion of transcription factor networks and agronomically important gene families. Completion of the Triangle of U comparative genomics platform has allowed us to examine the dynamics of polyploid evolution and the role of subgenome dominance in the domestication and continuing agronomic improvement of B. carinata and other Brassica species.

Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) is an agriculturally valuable tree that produces fruits used in a range of culinary dishes, beverages, and other products. The progenitor species and number of origins of sour cherry remain unresolved. Here, we performed phylogenetic analyses of plastid genomes and nuclear genes from nine wild species and three historically important sour cherry cultivars. Our analyses identified Prunus fruticosa and Prunus avium as the closest extant relatives of the progenitor species of tetraploid sour cherry. Furthermore, our analyses revealed P. fruticosa as the likely maternal contributor. These findings and transcriptomic datasets should serve as valuable new resources to guide future breeding efforts in sour cherry.

Strawberry (Fragaria spp.) has emerged as a model system for various fundamental and applied research in recent years. In total, the genomes of five different species have been sequenced over the past 10 y. Here, we report chromosome-scale reference genomes for five strawberry species, including three newly sequenced species' genomes, and genome resequencing data for 128 additional accessions to estimate the genetic diversity, structure, and demographic history of key Fragaria species. Our analyses obtained fully resolved and strongly supported phylogenies and divergence times for most diploid strawberry species. These analyses also uncovered a new diploid species (Fragaria emeiensis Jia J. Lei). Finally, we constructed a pan-genome for Fragaria and examined the evolutionary dynamics of gene families. Notably, we identified multiple independent single base mutations of the MYB10 gene associated with white pigmented fruit shared by different strawberry species. These reference genomes and datasets, combined with our phylogenetic estimates, should serve as a powerful comparative genomic platform and resource for future studies in strawberry.

PremisePolyploid species often have complex evolutionary histories that have, until recently, been intractable due to limitations of genomic resources. While recent work has further uncovered the evolutionary history of the octoploid strawberry (Fragaria L.), there are still open questions. Much is unknown about the evolutionary relationship of the wild octoploid species, Fragaria virginiana and Fragaria chiloensis, and gene flow within and among species after the formation of the octoploid genome.MethodsWe leveraged a collection of wild octoploid ecotypes of strawberry representing the recognized subspecies and ranging from Alaska to southern Chile, and a high-density SNP array to investigate wild octoploid strawberry evolution. Evolutionary relationships were interrogated with phylogenetic analysis and genetic clustering algorithms. Additionally, admixture among and within species is assessed with model-based and tree-based approaches.ResultsPhylogenetic analysis revealed that the two octoploid strawberry species are monophyletic sister lineages. The genetic clustering results show substructure between North and South American F. chiloensis populations. Additionally, model-based and tree-based methods support gene flow within and among the two octoploid species, including newly identified admixture in the Hawaiian F. chiloensis subsp. sandwicensis population.ConclusionsF. virginiana and F. chiloensis are supported as monophyletic and sister lineages. All but one of the subspecies show extensive paraphyly. Furthermore, phylogenetic relationships among F. chiloensis populations supports a single population range expansion southward from North America. The inter- and intraspecific relationships of octoploid strawberry are complex and suggest substantial gene flow between sympatric populations among and within species.

Genome sizes of plants have long piqued the interest of researchers due to the vast differences among organisms. However, the mechanisms that drive size differences have yet to be fully understood. Two important contributing factors to genome size are expansions of repetitive elements, such as transposable elements (TEs), and whole-genome duplications (WGD). Although studies have found correlations between genome size and both TE abundance and polyploidy, these studies typically test for these patterns within a genus or species. The plant order Brassicales provides an excellent system to further test if genome size evolution patterns are consistent across larger time scales, as there are numerous WGDs. This order is also home to one of the smallest plant genomes, Arabidopsis thaliana-chosen as the model plant system for this reason-as well as to species with very large genomes. With new methods that allow for TE characterization from low-coverage genome shotgun data and 71 taxa across the Brassicales, we confirm the correlation between genome size and TE content, however, we are unable to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships and do not detect any shift in TE abundance associated with WGD.

Cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is one of our youngest domesticates, originating in early eighteenth-century Europe from spontaneous hybrids between wild allo-octoploid species (Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana). The improvement of horticultural traits by 300 years of breeding has enabled the global expansion of strawberry production. Here, we describe the genomic history of strawberry domestication from the earliest hybrids to modern cultivars. We observed a significant increase in heterozygosity among interspecific hybrids and a decrease in heterozygosity among domesticated descendants of those hybrids. Selective sweeps were found across the genome in early and modern phases of domestication-59-76% of the selectively swept genes originated in the three less dominant ancestral subgenomes. Contrary to the tenet that genetic diversity is limited in cultivated strawberry, we found that the octoploid species harbor massive allelic diversity and that F. × ananassa harbors as much allelic diversity as either wild founder. We identified 41.8 M subgenome-specific DNA variants among resequenced wild and domesticated individuals. Strikingly, 98% of common alleles and 73% of total alleles were shared between wild and domesticated populations. Moreover, genome-wide estimates of nucleotide diversity were virtually identical in F. chiloensis,F. virginiana, and F. × ananassa (π = 0.0059-0.0060). We found, however, that nucleotide diversity and heterozygosity were significantly lower in modern F. × ananassa populations that have experienced significant genetic gains and have produced numerous agriculturally important cultivars.

The members of the tribe Brassiceae share a whole-genome triplication (WGT), and one proposed model for its formation is a two-step pair of hybridizations producing hexaploid descendants. However, evidence for this model is incomplete, and the evolutionary and functional constraints that drove evolution after the hexaploidy are even less understood. Here, we report a new genome sequence of Crambe hispanica, a species sister to most sequenced Brassiceae. Using this new genome and three others that share the hexaploidy, we traced the history of gene loss after the WGT using the Polyploidy Orthology Inference Tool (POInT). We confirm the two-step formation model and infer that there was a significant temporal gap between those two allopolyploidizations, with about a third of the gene losses from the first two subgenomes occurring before the arrival of the third. We also, for the 90,000 individual genes in our study, make parental subgenome assignments, inferring, with measured uncertainty, from which of the progenitor genomes of the allohexaploidy each gene derives. We further show that each subgenome has a statistically distinguishable rate of homoeolog losses. There is little indication of functional distinction between the three subgenomes: the individual subgenomes show no patterns of functional enrichment, no excess of shared protein-protein or metabolic interactions between their members, and no biases in their likelihood of having experienced a recent selective sweep. We propose a "mix and match" model of allopolyploidy, in which subgenome origin drives homoeolog loss propensities but where genes from different subgenomes function together without difficulty.

Allopolyploidisation merges evolutionarily distinct parental genomes (subgenomes) into a single nucleus. A frequent observation is that one subgenome is 'dominant' over the other subgenome, often being more highly expressed. Here, we 'replayed the evolutionary tape' with six isogenic resynthesised Brassica napus allopolyploid lines and investigated subgenome dominance patterns over the first 10 generations postpolyploidisation. We found that the same subgenome was consistently more dominantly expressed in all lines and generations and that >70% of biased gene pairs showed the same dominance patterns across all lines and an in silico hybrid of the parents. Gene network analyses indicated an enrichment for network interactions and several biological functions for the Brassica oleracea subgenome biased pairs, but no enrichment was identified for Brassica rapa subgenome biased pairs. Furthermore, DNA methylation differences between subgenomes mirrored the observed gene expression bias towards the dominant subgenome in all lines and generations. Many of these differences in gene expression and methylation were also found when comparing the progenitor genomes, suggesting that subgenome dominance is partly related to parental genome differences rather than just a byproduct of allopolyploidisation. These findings demonstrate that 'replaying the evolutionary tape' in an allopolyploid results in largely repeatable and predictable subgenome expression dominance patterns.

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is an allo-octoploid species, originating nearly 300 years ago from wild progenitors from the Americas. Since that time the strawberry has become the most widely cultivated fruit crop in the world, universally appealing due to its sensory qualities and health benefits. The recent publication of the first high-quality chromosome-scale octoploid strawberry genome (cv. Camarosa) is enabling rapid advances in genetics, stimulating scientific debate and provoking new research questions. In this forward-looking review we propose avenues of research toward new biological insights and applications to agriculture. Among these are the origins of the genome, characterization of genetic variants, and big data approaches to breeding. Key areas of research in molecular biology will include the control of flowering, fruit development, fruit quality, and plant-pathogen interactions. In order to realize this potential as a global community, investments in genome resources must be continually augmented.

Octoploid strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) is a valuable specialty crop, but profitable production and availability are threatened by many pathogens. Efforts to identify and introgress useful disease resistance genes (R-genes) in breeding programs are complicated by strawberry's complex octoploid genome. Recently-developed resources in strawberry, including a complete octoploid reference genome and high-resolution octoploid genotyping, enable new analyses in strawberry disease resistance genetics. This study characterizes the complete R-gene collection in the genomes of commercial octoploid strawberry and two diploid ancestral relatives, and introduces several new technological and data resources for strawberry disease resistance research. These include octoploid R-gene transcription profiling, dN/dS analysis, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis and RenSeq analysis in cultivars. Octoploid fruit eQTL were identified for 76 putative R-genes. R-genes from the ancestral diploids Fragaria vesca and Fragaria iinumae were compared, revealing differential inheritance and retention of various octoploid R-gene subtypes. The mode and magnitude of natural selection of individual F. ×ananassa R-genes was also determined via dN/dS analysis. R-gene sequencing using enriched libraries (RenSeq) has been used recently for R-gene discovery in many crops, however this technique somewhat relies upon a priori knowledge of desired sequences. An octoploid strawberry capture-probe panel, derived from the results of this study, is validated in a RenSeq experiment and is presented for community use. These results give unprecedented insight into crop disease resistance genetics, and represent an advance toward exploiting variation for strawberry cultivar improvement.

Green plants (Viridiplantae) include around 450,000-500,000 species1,2 of great diversity and have important roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here, as part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative, we sequenced the vegetative transcriptomes of 1,124 species that span the diversity of plants in a broad sense (Archaeplastida), including green plants (Viridiplantae), glaucophytes (Glaucophyta) and red algae (Rhodophyta). Our analysis provides a robust phylogenomic framework for examining the evolution of green plants. Most inferred species relationships are well supported across multiple species tree and supermatrix analyses, but discordance among plastid and nuclear gene trees at a few important nodes highlights the complexity of plant genome evolution, including polyploidy, periods of rapid speciation, and extinction. Incomplete sorting of ancestral variation, polyploidization and massive expansions of gene families punctuate the evolutionary history of green plants. Notably, we find that large expansions of gene families preceded the origins of green plants, land plants and vascular plants, whereas whole-genome duplications are inferred to have occurred repeatedly throughout the evolution of flowering plants and ferns. The increasing availability of high-quality plant genome sequences and advances in functional genomics are enabling research on genome evolution across the green tree of life.

In the version of this article originally published, author Joshua R. Puzey was incorrectly listed as having affiliation 7 (School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA); affiliation 6 (Department of Biology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA) is the correct affiliation. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Cultivated strawberry emerged from the hybridization of two wild octoploid species, both descendants from the merger of four diploid progenitor species into a single nucleus more than 1 million years ago. Here we report a near-complete chromosome-scale assembly for cultivated octoploid strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) and uncovered the origin and evolutionary processes that shaped this complex allopolyploid. We identified the extant relatives of each diploid progenitor species and provide support for the North American origin of octoploid strawberry. We examined the dynamics among the four subgenomes in octoploid strawberry and uncovered the presence of a single dominant subgenome with significantly greater gene content, gene expression abundance, and biased exchanges between homoeologous chromosomes, as compared with the other subgenomes. Pathway analysis showed that certain metabolomic and disease-resistance traits are largely controlled by the dominant subgenome. These findings and the reference genome should serve as a powerful platform for future evolutionary studies and enable molecular breeding in strawberry.

Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) has long been consumed for its unique flavor and composition of health-promoting phytonutrients. However, breeding efforts to improve fruit quality in blueberry have been greatly hampered by the lack of adequate genomic resources and a limited understanding of the underlying genetics encoding key traits. The genome of highbush blueberry has been particularly challenging to assemble due, in large part, to its polyploid nature and genome size. Here, we present a chromosome-scale and haplotype-phased genome assembly of the cultivar "Draper," which has the highest antioxidant levels among a diversity panel of 71 cultivars and 13 wild Vaccinium species. We leveraged this genome, combined with gene expression and metabolite data measured across fruit development, to identify candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of important phytonutrients among other metabolites associated with superior fruit quality. Genome-wide analyses revealed that both polyploidy and tandem gene duplications modified various pathways involved in the biosynthesis of key phytonutrients. Furthermore, gene expression analyses hint at the presence of a spatial-temporal specific dominantly expressed subgenome including during fruit development. These findings and the reference genome will serve as a valuable resource to guide future genome-enabled breeding of important agronomic traits in highbush blueberry.

Allo-octoploid cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) originated through a combination of polyploid and homoploid hybridization, domestication of an interspecific hybrid lineage, and continued admixture of wild species over the last 300 years. While genes appear to flow freely between the octoploid progenitors, the genome structures and diversity of the octoploid species remain poorly understood. The complexity and absence of an octoploid genome frustrated early efforts to study chromosome evolution, resolve subgenomic structure, and develop a single coherent linkage group nomenclature. Here, we show that octoploid Fragaria species harbor millions of subgenome-specific DNA variants. Their diversity was sufficient to distinguish duplicated (homoeologous and paralogous) DNA sequences and develop 50K and 850K SNP genotyping arrays populated with co-dominant, disomic SNP markers distributed throughout the octoploid genome. Whole-genome shotgun genotyping of an interspecific segregating population yielded 1.9M genetically mapped subgenome variants in 5,521 haploblocks spanning 3,394 cM in F. chiloensis subsp. lucida, and 1.6M genetically mapped subgenome variants in 3,179 haploblocks spanning 2,017 cM in F. × ananassa. These studies provide a dense genomic framework of subgenome-specific DNA markers for seamlessly cross-referencing genetic and physical mapping information and unifying existing chromosome nomenclatures. Using comparative genomics, we show that geographically diverse wild octoploids are effectively diploidized, nearly completely collinear, and retain strong macro-synteny with diploid progenitor species. The preservation of genome structure among allo-octoploid taxa is a critical factor in the unique history of garden strawberry, where unimpeded gene flow supported its origin and domestication through repeated cycles of interspecific hybridization.

Summary: Drought stress substantially impacts crop physiology resulting in alteration of growth and productivity. Understanding the genetic and molecular crosstalk between stress responses and agronomically important traits such as fibre yield is particularly complicated in the allopolyploid species, upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), due to reduced sequence variability between A and D subgenomes. To better understand how drought stress impacts yield, the transcriptomes of 22 genetically and phenotypically diverse upland cotton accessions grown under well‐watered and water‐limited conditions in the Arizona low desert were sequenced. Gene co‐expression analyses were performed, uncovering a group of stress response genes, in particular transcription factors GhDREB2A‐A and GhHSFA6B‐D, associated with improved yield under water‐limited conditions in an ABA‐independent manner. DNA affinity purification sequencing (DAP‐seq), as well as public cistrome data from Arabidopsis, were used to identify targets of these two TFs. Among these targets were two lint yield‐associated genes previously identified through genome‐wide association studies (GWAS)‐based approaches, GhABP‐D and GhIPS1‐A. Biochemical and phylogenetic approaches were used to determine that GhIPS1‐A is positively regulated by GhHSFA6B‐D, and that this regulatory mechanism is specific to Gossypium spp. containing the A (old world) genome. Finally, an SNP was identified within the GhHSFA6B‐D binding site in GhIPS1‐A that is positively associated with yield under water‐limiting conditions. These data lay out a regulatory connection between abiotic stress and fibre yield in cotton that appears conserved in other systems such as Arabidopsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contents Summary 87 I. Introduction 87 II. Evolution in action: subgenome dominance within newly formed hybrids and polyploids 88 III. Summary and future directions 90 Acknowledgements 92 References 92 SUMMARY: The merger of divergent genomes, via hybridization or allopolyploidization, frequently results in a 'genomic shock' that induces a series of rapid genetic and epigenetic modifications as a result of conflicts between parental genomes. This conflict among the subgenomes routinely leads one subgenome to become dominant over the other subgenome(s), resulting in subgenome biases in gene content and expression. Recent advances in methods to analyze hybrid and polyploid genomes with comparisons to extant parental progenitors have allowed for major strides in understanding the mechanistic basis for subgenome dominance. In particular, our understanding of the role that homoeologous exchange might play in subgenome dominance and genome evolution is quickly growing. Here we describe recent discoveries uncovering the underlying mechanisms and provide a framework to predict subgenome dominance in hybrids and allopolyploids with far-reaching implications for agricultural, ecological, and evolutionary research.

Fusarium wilt, a soil-borne disease caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae, threatens strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) production worldwide. The spread of the pathogen, coupled with disruptive changes in soil fumigation practices, have greatly increased disease pressure and the importance of developing resistant cultivars. While resistant and susceptible cultivars have been reported, a limited number of germplasm accessions have been analyzed, and contradictory conclusions have been reached in earlier studies to elucidate the underlying genetic basis of resistance. Here, we report the discovery of Fw1, a dominant gene conferring resistance to Fusarium wilt in strawberry. The Fw1 locus was uncovered in a genome-wide association study of 565 historically and commercially important strawberry accessions genotyped with 14,408 SNP markers. Fourteen SNPs in linkage disequilibrium with Fw1 physically mapped to a 2.3 Mb segment on chromosome 2 in a diploid F. vesca reference genome. Fw1 and 11 tightly linked GWAS-significant SNPs mapped to linkage group 2C in octoploid segregating populations. The most significant SNP explained 85% of the phenotypic variability and predicted resistance in 97% of the accessions tested-broad-sense heritability was 0.96. Several disease resistance and defense-related gene homologs, including a small cluster of genes encoding nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat proteins, were identified in the 0.7 Mb genomic segment predicted to harbor Fw1 DNA variants and candidate genes identified in the present study should facilitate the development of high-throughput genotyping assays for accurately predicting Fusarium wilt phenotypes and applying marker-assisted selection.

Polyploidy is increasingly seen as a driver of both evolutionary innovation and ecological success. One source of polyploid organisms' successes may be their origins in the merging and mixing of genomes from two different species (e.g., allopolyploidy). Using POInT (the Polyploid Orthology Inference Tool), we model the resolution of three allopolyploidy events, one from the bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), one from the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) and one from grasses including Sorghum bicolor. Analyzing a total of 21 genomes, we assign to every gene a probability for having come from each parental subgenome (i.e., derived from the diploid progenitor species), yielding orthologous segments across all genomes. Our model detects statistically robust evidence for the existence of biased fractionation in all three lineages, whereby genes from one of the two subgenomes were more likely to be lost than those from the other subgenome. We further find that a driver of this pattern of biased losses is the co-retention of genes from the same parental genome that share functional interactions. The pattern of biased fractionation after the Arabidopsis and grass allopolyploid events was surprisingly constant in time, with the same parental genome favored throughout the lineages' history. In strong contrast, the yeast allopolyploid event shows evidence of biased fractionation only immediately after the event, with balanced gene losses more recently. The rapid loss of functionally associated genes from a single subgenome is difficult to reconcile with the action of genetic drift and suggests that selection may favor the removal of specific duplicates. Coupled to the evidence for continuing, functionally-associated biased fractionation after the A. thaliana At-α event, we suggest that, after allopolyploidy, there are functional conflicts between interacting genes encoded in different subgenomes that are ultimately resolved through preferential duplicate loss.

BackgroundAlthough draft genomes are available for most agronomically important plant species, the majority are incomplete, highly fragmented, and often riddled with assembly and scaffolding errors. These assembly issues hinder advances in tool development for functional genomics and systems biology.FindingsHere we utilized a robust, cost-effective approach to produce high-quality reference genomes. We report a near-complete genome of diploid woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) using single-molecule real-time sequencing from Pacific Biosciences (PacBio). This assembly has a contig N50 length of ∼7.9 million base pairs (Mb), representing a ∼300-fold improvement of the previous version. The vast majority (>99.8%) of the assembly was anchored to 7 pseudomolecules using 2 sets of optical maps from Bionano Genomics. We obtained ∼24.96 Mb of sequence not present in the previous version of the F. vesca genome and produced an improved annotation that includes 1496 new genes. Comparative syntenic analyses uncovered numerous, large-scale scaffolding errors present in each chromosome in the previously published version of the F. vesca genome.ConclusionsOur results highlight the need to improve existing short-read based reference genomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate how genome quality impacts commonly used analyses for addressing both fundamental and applied biological questions.

BackgroundThe ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter gene superfamily is ubiquitous among extant organisms and prominently represented in plants. ABC transporters act to transport compounds across cellular membranes and are involved in a diverse range of biological processes. Thus, the applicability to biotechnology is vast, including cancer resistance in humans, drug resistance among vertebrates, and herbicide and other xenobiotic resistance in plants. In addition, plants appear to harbor the highest diversity of ABC transporter genes compared with any other group of organisms. This study applied transcriptome analysis to survey the kingdom-wide ABC transporter diversity in plants and suggest biotechnology applications of this diversity.ResultsWe utilized sequence similarity-based informatics techniques to infer the identity of ABC transporter gene candidates from 1295 phylogenetically-diverse plant transcriptomes. A total of 97,149 putative (approximately 25 % were full-length) ABC transporter gene members were identified; each RNA-Seq library (plant sample) had 88 ± 30 gene members. As expected, simpler organisms, such as algae, had fewer unique members than vascular land plants. Differences were also noted in the richness of certain ABC transporter subfamilies. Land plants had more unique ABCB, ABCC, and ABCG transporter gene members on average (p