Chromosome-scale assembly of achiote (Bixa orellana)

Bixa orellana, or achiote, is the domesticated species within the Bixa genus. Its high bixin content is extensively used as a pigment in the food industry. Achiote is a cross-pollinated, highly heterozygous species with a small genome size. Here, we generated a de novo genome assembly of Bixa orellana L. The assembly includes 10 chromosome-scale superscaffolds representing 96.4% of the assembly, for an overall genome size of 270Mb. Illumina RNA-Seq libraries from different tissues sampled from the same cultivar were used to annotate the genome. This work will be crucial for identifying the genes involved in bixin synthesis and its regulation.This work was supported by SECIHTI (formerly CONACYT: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología: Fronteras de la Ciencia No. 2016-01-1716) to RRM, and the NSF National Science Foundation - Division of Integrative Organismal Systems grant 1956429 RESEARCH-PGR: Variants and Recombinants without Meiosis to L.C. and I.M.H. The sequencing was carried out by the DNA Technologies and Expression Analysis Core at the UC Davis Genome Center, supported by NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant 1S10OD010786-01. DC, postdoctoral position (FC No. 2016-01- 1716) supported by CONACYT.