De novo assembly and annotation of 7 maize inbred lines of importance for breeding programs in Central Europe.

While whole genome sequence assemblies have been generated for several maize inbred lines, we still lack knowledge on the full maize diversity, including for a number of key inbred lines used in European breeding. To fill this knowledge gap, we de novo assembled genome sequences of 7 inbred lines that are important for breeding programs in Central Europe. They include a European flint line derived from the Lacaune population, that has been the major founder of the European Flint heterotic group (F2, Lacaune, Southern France), an early flowering European flint line from Northern Europe (F4, Étoile de Normandie, Northern France), a very early flowering northern flint line from Northern America (GF111, derived in Italy from the Canadian landrace Gaspé Flint), a dent line from the Iodent subgroup (MBS847, derived from hybrid Pioneer3901, Iodent family), an early flowering dent line derived from early North-American lines (F252, CO125 family), a line derived from the South-Spanish population Mollar Almeria that traces to first introductions of maize into Europe (EA1197, Mollar Almeria, Tropical/Spanish family), and a highland tropical line (F331, derived in France from CIMMYT population 86 C2). Genes were annotated in each genome using mRNA-seq data in triplicate from 15 tissues including 7 from plants grown in two water regimes (well-watered and water-deficit conditions). Transposable element sequences were annotated using a panEDTA approach. These data will be key in assessing gene structural variation and to discover the transcriptional and functional specificities of core and dispensable genes. Project website: https://amaizing.fr Research funded by French ANR award ANR-10-BTBR-01-01 and France Agrimer.