Wild and Weedy Helianthus annuus whole genome resequencing

We resequenced the genomes of 343 Helianthus annuus individuals: 323 pure wild individuals from 28 populations located across the MidWestern USA and Southern Canada (8-14 individuals per population) and 20 individuals of mixed wild x cultivar (HA412 cms) origin. Plants were grown from field-collected seeds and DNA extracted from the leaf tissue of young seedlings. DNA was sheared to an average fragment size of 350 bp before preparing paired-end whole-genome shotgun Illumina libraries with Illumina TruSeq adapters using a custom lab protocol. To reduce the representation of repetitive sequences in the libraries, we performed a depletion step by treating the enriched libraries with Duplex-Specific Nuclease. We used these data to survey diversity across the Helianthus annuus range, understand population structure, and examine patterns of adaptation to both latitude and specific environments (e.g. crop weeds in agricultural fields). This analysis may broaden our understanding of the genomic basis of adaptive evolution in annual plants.