The genome of the cucumber, Cucumis sativus L

Sanwen Huang, Ruiqiang Li, Zhonghua Zhang, Li Li, Xingfang Gu, Wei Fan, William J Lucas, Xiaowu Wang, Bingyan Xie, Peixiang Ni, Yuanyuan Ren, Hongmei Zhu, Jun Li, Kui Lin, Weiwei Jin, Zhangjun Fei, Guangcun Li, Jack Staub, Andrzej Kilian, Edwin A G van der VossenYang Wu, Jie Guo, Jun He, Zhiqi Jia, Yi Ren, Geng Tian, Yao Lu, Jue Ruan, Wubin Qian, Mingwei Wang, Quanfei Huang, Bo Li, Zhaoling Xuan, Jianjun Cao, Asan, Zhigang Wu, Juanbin Zhang, Qingle Cai, Yinqi Bai, Bowen Zhao, Yonghua Han, Ying Li, Xuefeng Li, Shenhao Wang, Qiuxiang Shi, Shiqiang Liu, Won Kyong Cho, Jae-Yean Kim, Yong Xu, Katarzyna Heller-Uszynska, Han Miao, Zhouchao Cheng, Shengping Zhang, Jian Wu, Yuhong Yang, Houxiang Kang, Man Li, Huiqing Liang, Xiaoli Ren, Zhongbin Shi, Ming Wen, Min Jian, Hailong Yang, Guojie Zhang, Zhentao Yang, Rui Chen, Shifang Liu, Jianwen Li, Lijia Ma, Hui Liu, Yan Zhou, Jing Zhao, Xiaodong Fang, Guoqing Li, Lin Fang, Yingrui Li, Dongyuan Liu, Hongkun Zheng, Yong Zhang, Nan Qin, Zhuo Li, Guohua Yang, Shuang Yang, Lars Bolund, Karsten Kristiansen, Hancheng Zheng, Shaochuan Li, Xiuqing Zhang, Huanming Yang, Jian Wang, Rifei Sun, Baoxi Zhang, Shuzhi Jiang, Jun Wang, Yongchen Du, Songgang Li

935 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Cucumber is an economically important crop as well as a model system for sex determination studies and plant vascular biology. Here we report the draft genome sequence of Cucumis sativus var. sativus L., assembled using a novel combination of traditional Sanger and next-generation Illumina GA sequencing technologies to obtain 72.2-fold genome coverage. The absence of recent whole-genome duplication, along with the presence of few tandem duplications, explains the small number of genes in the cucumber. Our study establishes that five of the cucumber's seven chromosomes arose from fusions of ten ancestral chromosomes after divergence from Cucumis melo. The sequenced cucumber genome affords insight into traits such as its sex expression, disease resistance, biosynthesis of cucurbitacin and 'fresh green' odor. We also identify 686 gene clusters related to phloem function. The cucumber genome provides a valuable resource for developing elite cultivars and for studying the evolution and function of the plant vascular system.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Genetics
Volume41
Issue number12
Pages (from-to)1275-81
Number of pages6
ISSN1061-4036
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

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