High Contiguity de novo Genome Sequence Assembly of Trifoliate Yam (Dioscorea dumetorum) Using Long Read Sequencing

Trifoliate yam (Dioscorea dumetorum) is one example of an orphan crop, not traded internationally. Post-harvest hardening of the tubers of this species starts within 24 h after harvesting and renders the tubers inedible. Genomic resources are required for D. dumetorum to improve breeding for non-hardening varieties as well as for other traits. We sequenced the D. dumetorum genome and generated the corresponding annotation. The two haplophases of this highly heterozygous genome were separated to a large extent. The assembly represents 485 Mbp of the genome with an N(50) of over 3.2 Mbp. A total of 35,269 protein-encoding gene models as well as 9941 non-coding RNA genes were predicted, and functional annotations were assigned.