Amaranthus palmeri Genome sequencing and assembly. Amaranthus palmeri

Whole genome assembly of Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri). Palmer amaranth is a member of Caryophyllales, a plant order that is uniquely located in evolution, after the divergence of dicots and monocots, but before the split of asterids and rosids, positioning it near the basal eudicots and making it a good resource for studies in comparative genomics. Its role as a weedy species in agricultural settings has placed it under unique selectional pressures that allow plant scientists to investigate novel forms of plant evolution and adaptation. Early research on the gene duplication mechanism of glyphosate resistance has shown it to be an unusual phenomenon, gaining upwards of 100+ gene copies of the herbicide target gene and varying this copy number from cell to cell within the same plant. Additionally, the Amaranthus genus is comprised of many monoecious and dioecious species, making it an excellent system for the study of plant sex determination and plant sex chromosomes. For these reasons and more, we have sequenced the genome of A. palmeri and present here a draft assembly.