Sesuvium portulacastrum genome

Soil salinization affects plant growth and global agricultural development, and elucidation of salt tolerance mechanisms can help to enhance crop salt resilience. Sesuvium portulacastrum is a true halophyte growing in coastal environments and it is almost the most salt-tolerable plant in the world, but its genomic remains unclear. Here, we combined ONT sequencing and second-generation sequencing technologies to assemble a chromosome-level genome, and finally generated a 1.69 Gb high-quality genome for S. portulacastrum. Using nanopore sequencing and Hi-C technologies, we mapped this genome onto 24 chromosomes, which contained 61,420 protein-coding genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that this halophyte has a close genetic relationship with the ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, which was diverged approximately 45.2 million years ago. Our results revealed that whole-genome duplication events happened in this plant have expanded many gene families and transcription factors to cope with saline environments.