A telomere-to-telomere reference genome of ficus () provides new insights into sex determination.

A high-quality reference genome is indispensable for resolving biologically essential traits. is a dioecious plant. A complete reference genome will be crucial for understanding their sex evolution and important biological characteristics, such as aerial roots, mutualistic symbiosis with ficus-wasps, and fruiting from old stems. Here, we generated a telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome for using PacBio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore Ultra-long sequencing technologies. The genome contiguity and completeness has shown improvement compared with the previously released genome, with the annotation of six centromeres and 28 telomeres. We have refined our previously reported 2-Mb male-specific region into a 7.2-Mb genomic region containing 51 newly predicted genes and candidate sex-determination genes and . Many of these genes showed extremely low expression, likely attributed to hypermethylation in the gene body and promoter regions. Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) revealed that and are related to the regulation of stamen development in male flowers, while the gene is responsible for regulating female flowers' defense responses and secondary metabolite processes. Comparative analysis of GRNs showed that the NAC, WRKY, and MYB transcription factor families dominate the female GRN, whereas the MADS and MYB transcription factor families are prevalent in the male GRN.