Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA 99352, USA.
G3 (Bethesda). 2023 Jun 1;13(6). doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad060.
Red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) is an ecologically significant and important fast-growing commercial tree species native to western coastal and riparian regions of North America, having highly desirable wood, pigment, and medicinal properties. We have sequenced the genome of a rapidly growing clone. The assembly is nearly complete, containing the full complement of expected genes. This supports our objectives of identifying and studying genes and pathways involved in nitrogen-fixing symbiosis and those related to secondary metabolites that underlie red alder's many interesting defense, pigmentation, and wood quality traits. We established that this clone is most likely diploid and identified a set of SNPs that will have utility in future breeding and selection endeavors, as well as in ongoing population studies. We have added a well-characterized genome to others from the order Fagales. In particular, it improves significantly upon the only other published alder genome sequence, that of Alnus glutinosa. Our work initiated a detailed comparative analysis of members of the order Fagales and established some similarities with previous reports in this clade, suggesting a biased retention of certain gene functions in the vestiges of an ancient genome duplication when compared with more recent tandem duplications.
红桤木（Alnus rubra Bong.）是一种生态意义重大且重要的速生商用树种，原产于北美的西部沿海和河流沿岸地区，具有理想的木材、色素和药用特性。我们已经对一个快速生长的克隆进行了测序。该组装几乎完整，包含了所有预期的基因。这支持了我们的目标，即鉴定和研究与固氮共生相关的基因和途径，以及与次生代谢物相关的基因和途径，这些次生代谢物是红桤木许多有趣的防御、色素沉着和木材质量特性的基础。我们确定这个克隆很可能是二倍体，并鉴定了一组 SNP，这些 SNP 将在未来的繁殖和选择工作中以及正在进行的种群研究中具有实用性。我们为来自壳斗目（Fagales）的其他物种添加了一个特征良好的基因组。特别是，它极大地改进了仅有的其他已公布的桤木基因组序列，即欧洲桤木（Alnus glutinosa）的基因组序列。我们的工作启动了对壳斗目成员的详细比较分析，并与该分支中的先前报告建立了一些相似性，表明与近期串联重复相比，在古老的基因组加倍的残余物中保留了某些基因功能的偏向性。
