Semi-wild melon 821 genome

<br>Melon (<i>Cucumis melo </i>L.) is an important vegetable crop that has an extensive history of cultivation. However, the genome of wild and semi-wild melon types that can be used for the analysis of agronomic traits is not yet available. Here we report a chromosome-level T2T genome assembly for 821 (<i>C. melo </i>ssp. <i>agrestis </i>var.<i> acidulus</i>), a semi-wild melon with two haplotypes of ~373 Mb and ~364 Mb, respectively. Comparative genome analysis discovered a significant number of structural variants (SVs) between <i>melo</i> (<i>C. melo </i>ssp. <i>melo</i>) and <i>agrestis</i> (<i>C. melo </i>ssp. <i>agrestis</i>) genomes, including a copy number variation located in the ToLCNDV resistance locus on chromosome 11. Genome-wide association studies detected a significant signal associated with climacteric ripening and identified one candidate gene <i>CM_ac12g14720.1</i> (<i>CmABA2</i>), encoding a cytoplasmic short chain dehydrogenase/reductase, which controls the biosynthesis of abscisic acid. This study provides valuable genetic resources for future research on melon breeding.