The Gillenia trifoliatagenome reveals dynamics correlated with growth and reproduction in Rosaceae

The Rosaceae family has striking phenotypic diversity and high syntenic conservation. Gillenia trifoliatais sister species to the Maleae tribe of apple and ~1000 other species. Gilleniahas many putative ancestral features, such as herb/sub-shrub habit, dry fruit-bearing and nine base chromosomes. This coalescence of ancestral characters in a phylogenetically important species, positions Gilleniaas a ‘rosetta stone’ for translational science within Rosaceae. We present genomic and phenological resources to facilitate the use of Gilleniafor this purpose. The Gilleniagenome is the first fully annotated chromosome-level assembly with an ancestral genome complement (x= 9), and with it we developed an improved model of the Rosaceae ancestral genome. MADS and NAC gene family analyses revealed genome dynamics correlated with growth and reproduction and we demonstrate how Gilleniacan be a negative control for studying fleshy fruit development in Rosaceae.