Hamrick Somerville (securemallet31)

Furthermore, 121 genes were positively selected, and 12 (9.9%) of these were involved in responses to biotic stimuli, which might explain the high disease resistance of C. hystrix. The alignment of whole C. hystrix genome with cucumber genome and self-alignment revealed 45,417 chromosome-specific sequences evenly distributed on C. hystrix chromosomes. Finally, we developed four cucumber-C. hystrix alien addition lines and identified the exact introgressed chromosome using molecular and cytological methods. The assembled C. hystrix genome can serve as a valuable resource for studies on Cucumis evolution and interspecific introgression breeding of cucumber.Small RNAs (sRNAs) are essential regulatory molecules, and there are three major sRNA classes in plants microRNAs (miRNAs), phased small interfering RNAs (phased siRNAs or phasiRNAs), and heterochromatic siRNAs (hc-siRNAs). Excluding miRNAs, the other two classes are not well annotated or available in public databases for most sequenced plant genomes. We performed a comprehensive sRNA annotation of 143 plant species that have fully sequenced genomes and next-generation sequencing sRNA data publicly available. The results are available via an online repository called sRNAanno ( ). Compared with other public plant sRNA databases, we obtained was much more miRNA annotations, which are more complete and reliable because of the consistent and highly stringent criteria used in our miRNA annotations. sRNAanno also provides free access to genomic information for >22,721 PHAS loci and >22 million hc-siRNA loci annotated from these 143 plant species. Both miRNA and PHAS loci can be easily browsed to view their main features, and a collection of archetypal trans-acting siRNA 3 (TAS3) genes were annotated separately for quick access. To facilitate the ease of sRNA annotation, sRNAanno provides free service for sRNA annotations to the community. In summary, the sRNAanno database is a great resource to facilitate genomic and genetic research on plant small RNAs.The efficacy of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) has been documented, but the optimization of this system, as well as CRISPR/Cas9-mediated multiplex genome editing, has not been explored in this species. Herein, we identified four VvU3 and VvU6 promoters and two ubiquitin (UBQ) promoters in grapevine and demonstrated that the use of the identified VvU3/U6 and UBQ2 promoters could significantly increase the editing efficiency in grape by improving the expression of sgRNA and Cas9, respectively. Furthermore, we conducted multiplex genome editing using the optimized CRISPR/Cas9 vector that contained the conventional multiple sgRNA expression cassettes or the polycistronic tRNA-sgRNA cassette (PTG) by targeting the sugar-related tonoplastic monosaccharide transporter (TMT) family members TMT1 and TMT2, and the overall editing efficiencies were higher than 10%. The simultaneous editing of TMT1 and TMT2 resulted in reduced sugar levels, which indicated the role of these two genes in sugar accumulation in grapes. Moreover, the activities of the VvU3, VvU6, and UBQ2 promoters in tobacco genome editing were demonstrated by editing the phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Our study provides materials for the optimization of the CRISPR/Cas9 system. To our knowledge, our simultaneous editing of the grape TMT family genes TMT1 and TMT2 constitutes the first example of multiplex genome editing in grape. The multiplex editing systems described in this manuscript expand the toolbox of grape genome editing, which would facilitate basic research and molecular breeding in grapevine.Magnolia biondii Pamp. (Magnoliaceae, magnoliids) is a phylogenetically, economically, and medicinally important ornamental tree species widely grown and cultivated in the north-temperate regions of China. Determining the genome sequence of M. biondii would help resolve the phylogenetic uncertainty