Draft genome of the herbaceous bamboo Raddia distichophylla

Abstract

Bamboos are important nontimber forest plants widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, America, and Pacific islands. They comprise the Bambusoideae in the grass family (Poaceae), including approximately 1700 described species in 127 genera. In spite of the widespread uses of bamboo for food, construction, and bioenergy, the gene repertoire of bamboo still remains largely unexplored. Raddia distichophylla (Schrad. ex Nees) Chase, belonging to the tribe Olyreae (Bambusoideae, Poaceae), is a diploid herbaceous bamboo with only slightly lignified stems. In this study, we report a draft genome assembly of the ~589 Mb whole-genome sequence of R. distichophylla with a contig N50 length of 86.36 Kb. Repeat sequences account for ~49.08% of the genome assembly, of which LTR retrotransposons occupy ~35.99% of the whole genome. A total of 30,763 protein-coding genes were annotated in the R. distichophylla genome with an average transcript size of 2887 bp. Access to this herbaceous bamboo genome sequence will provide novel insights into biochemistry, molecular marker-assisted breeding programs, and germplasm conservation for bamboo species worldwide.