Chromosomal-level genome of fish mint Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (Saururaceae)

Abstract

Herbaceous flowering plants in the family Saururaceae, or commonly known as the lizards tail family, are native to Southeast Asia and North America. Fish mint Houttuynia cordata is native to Southeast Asia and widely cultivated as culinary herb and medicinal plant in traditional medicine. Here, using a combination of PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing and Omni-C data, we present the chromosomal-level genome assembly of H. cordata (genome size 499.6 Mb). The genome has high sequence contiguity (scaffold N50 = 64.3 Mb) and completeness (BUSCO score of 94.6 %). 40,451 protein coding genes were also predicted using two transcriptomes generated in this study. The fish mint genome provides a valuable resource for further understanding the bioactive compounds and evolution of plants in the Saururaceae more widely.