Insights into spinach domestication from genomes sequences of two wild spinach progenitors, Spinacia turkestanica and S. tetrandra

Hongbing She, Zhiyuan Liu, Zhaosheng Xu, Helong Zhang, Jian Wu, Xiaowu Wang, Feng Cheng*, Deborah Charlesworth*, Wei Qian*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a dioecious species. We report high-quality genome sequences for its two closest wild relatives, S. turkestanica and S. tetrandra, which are also dioecious, and are used to study the genetics of spinach domestication.
Using a combination of genomic approaches, we assembled genomes of both these species, and analysed them in comparison to the previously assembled S. oleracea genome.
These species diverged approximately 6.3 million years ago (Mya), while cultivated spinach split from S. turkestanica 0.8 Mya. In all three species, all six chromosomes include very large gene-poor, repeat-rich regions, which, in S. oleracea, are pericentromeric regions with very low recombination rates in both male and female genetic maps. We describe population genomic evidence that the similar regions in the wild species also recombine rarely. We characterized 282 structural variants (SVs) that have been selected during domestication. These regions include genes associated with leaf margin type and flowering time. We also describe evidence that the downy mildew resistance loci of cultivated spinach are derived from introgression from both wild spinach species.
Collectively, this study reveals genome architecture of spinach assemblies and highlights the importance of SVs during the domestication of cultivated spinach.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-494
Number of pages18
JournalNew Phytologist
Volume243
Issue number1
Early online date7 May 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Wild spinach relatives
  • pericentromeric region
  • evolution
  • domestication
  • bottlenecks

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