Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis var. angularis) is a dietary legume crop in East Asia. The presumed progenitor (Vigna angularis var. nipponensis) is widely found in East Asia, suggesting speciation and domestication in these temperate climate regions. Here, we report a draft genome sequence of adzuki bean. The genome assembly covers 75% of the estimated genome and was mapped to 11 pseudo-chromosomes. Gene prediction revealed 26,857 high confidence protein-coding genes evidenced by RNAseq of different tissues. Comparative gene expression analysis with V. radiata showed that the tissue specificity of orthologous genes was highly conserved. Additional re-sequencing of wild adzuki bean, V. angularis var. nipponensis and V. nepalensis, was performed to analyze the variations between cultivated and wild adzuki bean. The determined divergence time of adzuki bean and the wild species predated archaeology-based domestication time. The present genome assembly will accelerate the genomics-assisted breeding of adzuki bean.

Summary: Jatropha curcas (physic nut), a non‐edible oilseed crop, represents one of the most promising alternative energy sources due to its high seed oil content, rapid growth and adaptability to various environments. We report ~339 Mbp draft whole genome sequence of J. curcas var. Chai Nat using both the PacBio and Illumina sequencing platforms. We identified and categorized differentially expressed genes related to biosynthesis of lipid and toxic compound among four stages of seed development. Triacylglycerol (TAG), the major component of seed storage oil, is mainly synthesized by phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase in Jatropha, and continuous high expression of homologs of oleosin over seed development contributes to accumulation of high level of oil in kernels by preventing the breakdown of TAG. A physical cluster of genes for diterpenoid biosynthetic enzymes, including casbene synthases highly responsible for a toxic compound, phorbol ester, in seed cake, was syntenically highly conserved between Jatropha and castor bean. Transcriptomic analysis of female and male flowers revealed the up‐regulation of a dozen family of TFs in female flower. Additionally, we constructed a robust species tree enabling estimation of divergence times among nine Jatropha species and five commercial crops in Malpighiales order. Our results will help researchers and breeders increase energy efficiency of this important oil seed crop by improving yield and oil content, and eliminating toxic compound in seed cake for animal feed.

Summary: The use of next‐generation sequencers and advanced genotyping technologies has propelled the field of plant genomics in model crops and plants and enhanced the discovery of hidden bridges between genotypes and phenotypes. The newly generated reference sequences of unstudied minor plants can be annotated by the knowledge of model plants via translational genomics approaches. Here, we reviewed the strategies of translational genomics and suggested perspectives on the current databases of genomic resources and the database structures of translated information on the new genome. As a draft picture of phenotypic annotation, translational genomics on newly sequenced plants will provide valuable assistance for breeders and researchers who are interested in genetic studies.

Alternative splicing (AS) can produce multiple mature mRNAs from the same primary transcript, thereby generating diverse proteins and phenotypes from the same gene. To assess the prevalence of AS in mungbean (Vigna radiata), we analyzed whole-genome RNA sequencing data from root, leaf, flower, and pod tissues, and found that at least 37.9% of mungbean genes are subjected to AS. The number of AS transcripts exhibited a strong correlation with exon number, and thus resembled a uniform probabilistic event rather than a specific regulatory function. The proportion of frameshift splicing was close to the expected frequency of random splicing. However, alternative donor and acceptor AS events tended to occur at multiples of three nucleotides (i.e., the codon length) from the main splice site. Genes with high exon number and expression level, which should have the most AS if splicing is purely stochastic, exhibited less AS, implying the existence of negative selection against excessive random AS. Functional AS is probably rare: a large proportion of AS isoforms exist at very low copy per cell on average, or are expressed at much lower levels than default transcripts. Conserved AS was only detected in 629 genes (2.8% of all genes in the genome) when compared to Vigna angularis, and in 16 genes in more distant species like soybean. These observations highlight the challenges of finding and cataloging candidates for experimentally proven AS isoforms in a crop genome.

DNA methylation on cytosine residues is known to affect gene expression and is potentially responsible for the phenotypic variations among different crop cultivars. Here, we present the whole-genome DNA methylation profiles and assess the potential effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for two mungbean cultivars, Sunhwanogdu (VC1973A) and Kyunggijaerae#5 (V2984). By measuring the DNA methylation levels in leaf tissue with the bisulfite sequencing (BSseq) approach, we show both the frequencies of the various types of DNA methylation and the distribution of weighted gene methylation levels. SNPs that cause nucleotide changes from/to CHH – where C is cytosine and H is any other nucleotide – were found to affect DNA methylation status in VC1973A and V2984. In order to better understand the correlation between gene expression and DNA methylation levels, we surveyed gene expression in leaf tissues of VC1973A and V2984 using RNAseq. Transcript expressions of paralogous genes were controlled by DNA methylation within the VC1973A genome. Moreover, genes that were differentially expressed between the two cultivars showed distinct DNA methylation patterns. Our mungbean genome-wide methylation profiles will be valuable resources for understanding the phenotypic variations between different cultivars, as well as for molecular breeding.

Genetic Diversity Analysis of Jatropha CurcasProvenances Using Randomly Amplified PolymorphicDNA Markers. Dani Satyawan and I Made Tasma.Jatropha curcas nuts are rich in oil that is higly suitable forHak Cipta © 2011, BB-Biogenthe production of bio-diesel or to be used directly inmodified diesel engines. The objective of this study was toassess the extent of genetic diversity among 50 J. curcasprovenances and one accession of J. integerrima usingRAPD markers. The fifty J. curcas provenances werecollected from ecologically diverse regions of Indonesia, andplanted in the Pakuwon Experimental Station (Sukabumi,West Java). Fourteen RAPD primers with 60-80% G+Ccontent were used in this genetic diversity analysis andproduced 64 bands with 95.7% polymorphism level. ThePolymerase Chain Reactions used to generate the RAPDbands sometimes produced inconsistent and nonreproducibleresults, necessitating the duplication of eachreaction to prevent scoring errors. Sixty one validated bandswere subsequently used for genetic diversity analysis usingUnweighted Pair Group Method Arithmetic (UPGMA)method and Dice coefficients. It was shown that thesimilarity coefficients among the provenances ranged from0.2 to 0.98 with an average similarity of 0.75. Dendrogramanalysis produced two major groups of provenances, withone outlier from South Lampung. There was no tendency forprovenances originated from nearby regions to clustertogether in each group, and several provenances showedmore similarities with provenances originated from distantregions. This pattern lent credence to reports that Jatrophawas introduced to Indonesia around four centuries ago andwas mainly spread by humans. Based on the meansimilarities among the accessions and their clusteringpattern, the genetic diversity of the Jatropha collectionappeared to be fairly low. Future additions of geneticmaterials from more diverse genetic background will benecessary to maintain the current progress of Jatrophaimprovement program.