Low coverage genome sequencing for Erianthus giganteus

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the most important crops inthe world and a major source of sugar for human consumption. Despite this immensevalue, the circumscription of the genus Saccharum is complex, contentious, and largelyunresolved. Saccharum is either accepted in a broad sense by some authors or split intovarious genera such as Erianthus and Tripidium by others. A plastome phylogenomicanalysis of sugarcane and relatives was performed in order to investigate genericdelimitation, with emphasis on Tripidium (= Erianthus sect. Ripidium). Our plastomeanalysis demonstrates that Saccharum s.l. is polyphyletic and Tripidium (distributed inthe Old World) belongs to a distinct lineage from Saccharum s.s. (Old World) andErianthus s.s. (= Erianthus sect. Erianthus, New World). Therefore, this study confirmsthe recognition of Tripidium as a genus distinct from Saccharum and Erianthus, whichis also supported by morphology and nuclear markers. The circumscription of Erianthuss.s. remains unclear since our results are consistent with either considering it as adistinct genus or including it in Saccharum. Better understanding of the evolutionaryrelationships of sugarcane and relatives may be useful for the selection of potential taxafor interspecific and intergeneric crosses in the genetic improvement of sugarcane. Ataxonomic treatment of the six species of Tripidium is also presented, includingdescriptions, illustrations, data on geographical distribution, and three newnomenclatural combinations.