Asparagus officinalis Genome sequencing and assembly

Garden asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, is an emerging model system for understanding sex chromosome evolution. An estimated 6% of flowering plant species are dioecious, producing male and female offspring, yet little is known about molecular mechanism for the transition from hermaphroditism to dioecy including the evolution of sex chromosomes from ancestral autosomes. Gender in asparagus is inherited as an XY system with XX females and XY males. At the same time, the sex chromosomes in Asparagus are quite young and YY "super male" genotypes can be produced through anther culture. A reference genome has been assembled for a double haploid YY genotype and resequencing of XX, XY and other YY genotypes has be performed in order to investigate differences between X and Y chromosomes. This project includes the YY reference genome and short read resequencing data for 15 other A. officinalis genotypes including deletion mutants. In addition, the project includes resequencing data for and XX and XY genotype from another dioecious species, Asparagus cochinchinensis, and single genotype for the hermaphroditic species A. virgatus.