title: The genome of the extremophile crucifer Thellungiella parvula.
abstract: Thellungiella parvula is related to Arabidopsis thaliana and is endemic to saline, resource-poor habitats, making it a model for the evolution of plant adaptation to extreme environments. Here we present the draft genome for this extremophile species. Exclusively by next generation sequencing, we obtained the de novo assembled genome in 1,496 gap-free contigs, closely approximating the estimated genome size of 140 Mb. We anchored these contigs to seven pseudo chromosomes without the use of maps. We show that short reads can be assembled to a near-complete chromosome level for a eukaryotic species lacking prior genetic information. The sequence identifies a number of tandem duplications that, by the nature of the duplicated genes, suggest a possible basis for T. parvula's extremophile lifestyle. Our results provide essential background for developing genomically influenced testable hypotheses for the evolution of environmental stress tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA. maheshi.dassanayake@gmail.com
authors.forename: Maheshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dassanayake
authors.forename: Dong-Ha
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Hyewon
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Shahjahan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Dae-Jin
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Ray A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bressan
authors.forename: Jian-Kang
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Hans J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bohnert
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cheeseman
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D019607:Brassicaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D054712:Salinity; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences