A chromosome-level reference genome of a Fabaceae species yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus)

Abstract

Yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus L.), belonging to the family Fabaceae, is an important but underutilized root crop. Here, we generated a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome of yam bean by PacBio HiFi and Hi-C sequencing, with assembly size of 539.0 Mb, contig N50 of 25.6 Mb, and BUSCO complete rate of 99.3%. Then, we anchored 94.4% of the contig sequences into 11 pseudo-chromosomes, and assembled the telomeres at 86.4% (19/22) of the chromosome-ends. A total of 44,692 protein-coding genes were predicted, with the BUSCO complete rate of 99.3%, comparable to that of the genome assembly. Compared to the previously reported yam bean genome, the current assembly has a 1,388-fold increase in contig N50 size, and 12.2% and 24.3% increase in BUSCO complete rate for the genome sequence and gene set, respectively. Evolutionary analysis revealed that yam bean diverged from the clade of soybean and Pueraria lobata var. montana 22.5 MYA. This high-quality genome assembly will greatly facilitate the breeding of yam bean based on the genetic and genomic methods.