Oral Presentation International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

Oryza australiensis as a source for novel disease resistance in rice (#265)

Sabrina Morrison 1 2 3 , Ardy Kharabian Masouleh 1 2 , Agnelo Furtado 1 2 , Pauline Okemo 1 2 , Robert Henry 1 2
  1. Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, St Lucia, Qld, Australia
  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, St Lucia, Qld, Australia
  3. University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, Australian

The Australian wild relatives of rice represent largely untapped genetic reservoirs that can be harnessed for cultivated rice improvement. Oryza australiensis is an endemic Australian wild rice relative that possesses a number of agronomically attractive traits, including resistances to blast disease (Pyricularia oryzae) and brown plant hopper (Nilaparvata lugens), as well as heat, salinity, and drought tolerances. Consequently, O. australiensis is a promising genetic resource for cultivated rice. The development of a high-quality genome assembly is foundational for exploring the gene content of this species. Here, we present a chromosome-level de novo genome assembly of O. australiensis. PacBio HiFi long read data from O. australiensis was assembled using the Hifiasm Denovo assembler. The final length of the O. australiensis genome was 909 Mb. Genome assembly completeness, assessed using Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologues (BUSCO) from the viridiplantae lineage, was 99.3%. Eleven out of the 12 assembled pseudochromosomes had telomeres on both the forward and reverse strands, representing full chromosomes. The finalised assembly provides a high-quality, near-complete representation of the O. australiensis genome, that can be used to identify novel genetic material. Ongoing functional annotation of the O. australiensis genome will further elucidate the genes that control beneficial traits in this species.