High-quality Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense genome assemblies reveal the landscape and evolution of centromeres.

Centromere positioning and organization are crucial for genome evolution; however, research on centromere biology is largely influenced by the quality of available genome assemblies. Here, we combined Oxford Nanopore and Pacific Biosciences technologies to de novo assemble two high-quality reference genomes for Gossypium hirsutum (TM-1) and Gossypium barbadense (3-79). Compared with previously published reference genomes, our assemblies show substantial improvements, with the contig N50 improved by 4.6-fold and 5.6-fold, respectively, and thus represent the most complete cotton genomes to date. These high-quality reference genomes enable us to characterize 14 and 5 complete centromeric regions for G. hirsutum and G. barbadense, respectively. Our data revealed that the centromeres of allotetraploid cotton are occupied by members of the centromeric repeat for maize (CRM) and Tekay long terminal repeat families, and the CRM family reshapes the centromere structure of the A subgenome after polyploidization. These two intertwined families have driven the convergent evolution of centromeres between the two subgenomes, ensuring centromere function and genome stability. In addition, the repositioning and high sequence divergence of centromeres between G. hirsutum and G. barbadense have contributed to speciation and centromere diversity. This study sheds light on centromere evolution in a significant crop and provides an alternative approach for exploring the evolution of polyploid plants.