Publications by authors named "Peter J Maughan"

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is an important crop for the future challenges of food and nutrient security. Deep characterization of quinoa diversity is needed to support the agronomic improvement and adaptation of quinoa as its worldwide cultivation expands. In this study, we report the construction of chromosome-scale genome assemblies of eight quinoa accessions covering the range of phenotypic and genetic diversity of both lowland and highland quinoas.

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  • Penstemons are flowering plants native to the Rocky Mountains, often used in urban landscaping, but elite varieties struggle with abiotic stresses like drought and salinity.
  • Firecracker penstemon (Penstemon eatonii) is more resilient to these stresses and can hybridize with other penstemon species, offering a way to create more tolerant cultivars.
  • Researchers sequenced the genome of a firecracker penstemon from Utah and additional accessions, creating the most complete penstemon genome assembly so far.
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Aegilops umbellulata serve as an important reservoir for novel biotic and abiotic stress tolerance for wheat improvement. However, chromosomal rearrangements and evolutionary trajectory of this species remain to be elucidated. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation into Ae.

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Pitseed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri) is a free-living North American member of an allotetraploid complex that includes the Andean pseudocereal quinoa (C. quinoa). Like quinoa, pitseed goosefoot was domesticated, possibly independently, in eastern North America (subsp.

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  • - Weeds are valuable for research because they affect agriculture and can quickly adapt to changes caused by human activities.
  • - A shortage of genomic data limits the understanding of how weeds rapidly adapt, especially regarding traits like resistance to herbicides and stress tolerance.
  • - The International Weed Genomics Consortium aims to create genomic resources that enhance weed control research and support crop breeding by providing insights into adaptation and stress tolerance.
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Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an allotetraploid seed crop with the potential to help address global food security concerns. Genomes have been assembled for four accessions of quinoa; however, all assemblies are fragmented and do not reflect known chromosome biology.

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Background: Poa annua (annual bluegrass) is an allotetraploid turfgrass, an agronomically significant weed, and one of the most widely dispersed plant species on earth. Here, we report the chromosome-scale genome assemblies of P. annua's diploid progenitors, P.

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Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), an Andean pseudocereal, attained global popularity beginning in the early 2000s due to its protein quality, glycemic index, and high fiber, vitamin, and mineral contents. Pitseed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri), quinoa's North American free-living sister species, grows on disturbed and sandy substrates across the North America, including saline coastal sands, southwestern deserts, subtropical highlands, the Great Plains, and boreal forests. Together with South American avian goosefoot (Chenopodium hircinum) they comprise the American tetraploid goosefoot complex (ATGC).

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Bromus tectorum L. is arguably the most successful invasive weed in the world. It has fundamentally altered arid ecosystems of the western United States, where it now found on an excess of 20 million hectares.

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Poa annua L. is a globally distributed grass with economic and horticultural significance as a weed and as a turfgrass. This dual significance, and its phenotypic plasticity and ecological adaptation, have made P.

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  • Djulis is an ancient crop from Taiwan, related to quinoa, known for its high nutritional value with complete proteins and essential vitamins.
  • Recent genomic research produced a high-quality genome assembly for djulis, revealing 75,056 potential genes and significant repetitive sequences, particularly in its B sub-genome.
  • The study also highlighted strong genetic similarities to quinoa, establishing important connections for understanding its genetics and potential conservation efforts amid changing diets and habitat loss among indigenous peoples.
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Cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.) is an allohexaploid (AACCDD, 2n = 6x = 42) thought to have been domesticated more than 3,000 years ago while growing as a weed in wheat, emmer and barley fields in Anatolia. Oat has a low carbon footprint, substantial health benefits and the potential to replace animal-based food products.

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  • Genome size affects a species' form, function, and ecological success, and this study investigates how polyploidy and repetitive element activity drive genome evolution in caddisflies.
  • Researchers assembled genomes from 17 caddisfly species and found a significant variation in genome size, linking larger genomes to the expansion of transposable elements (TEs).
  • The study concludes that caddisfly clades with more ecological diversity tend to have larger genomes, indicating a relationship between TE activity and evolutionary adaptations in diverse environments.
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Substantial morphological variation in land plants remains inaccessible to genetic analysis because current models lack variation in important ecological and agronomic traits. The genus Gilia was historically a model for biosystematics studies and includes variation in morphological traits that are poorly understood at the genetic level. We assembled a chromosome-scale reference genome of G.

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The North American endemic genus Penstemon (Mitchell) has a recent geologic origin of ca. 3.6 million years ago (MYA) during the Pliocene/Pleistocene transition and has undergone a rapid adaptive evolutionary radiation with ca.

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Premise: Many programs can identify simple sequence repeat (SSR) motifs in genomic data. SSRgenotyper extends SSR identification to en masse genotyping from resequencing data for diversity panels and linkage mapping populations.

Methods And Results: SSRgenotyper will find and genotype SSRs from SAM files and an SSR reference FASTA.

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In many non-cultivated angiosperm species, seed dispersal is facilitated by the shattering of the seed head at maturity; in the Triticeae tribe, to which several of the world's most important cereals belong, shattering takes the form of a disarticulation of the rachis. The products of the genes and are both required for disarticulation to occur above the rachis nodes within the genera (barley) and (wheat). Here, it has been shown that both and are specific to the Triticeae tribe, although likely paralogs ( and ) are carried by the family Poaceae including Triticeae (the donor of the bread wheat D genome) lacks a copy of and disarticulation in this species occurs below, rather than above the rachis node; thus, the product of appears to be required for disarticulation to occur above the rachis node.

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  • The text discusses the genomic research on a highly nutritious plant known as garden orach, highlighting its physiological characteristics and historical significance as a food source.
  • Researchers developed the first complete chromosome-scale reference genome for the "Golden" cultivar using advanced sequencing technologies, resulting in a high-quality assembly with significant levels of repetitive DNA.
  • The genome annotation revealed over 37,000 gene models, indicating a comprehensive understanding of its genetic structure, but highlighted a lack of prior genetic data to fully explore the species' potential.
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Premise: Cañahua is a semi-domesticated crop grown in high-altitude regions of the Andes. It is an A-genome diploid (2 = 2 = 18) relative of the allotetraploid (AABB) and shares many of its nutritional benefits. Cañahua seed contains a complete protein, a low glycemic index, and offers a wide variety of nutritionally important vitamins and minerals.

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  • The research focuses on developing detailed genome assemblies for two diploid progenitor species of the common oat, Avena atlantica and Avena eriantha, which can potentially improve the adaptive and food quality traits of cultivated oats.
  • The findings reveal that both genome assemblies are large, rich in repetitive sequences, and contain about 50,000 annotated genes, including key resistance gene analogs.
  • The study enhances understanding of common oat's evolution and genetics, including insights into subgenomic relationships and candidate genes linked to flowering time and disease resistance.
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Quinoa has recently gained international attention because of its nutritious seeds, prompting the expansion of its cultivation into new areas in which it was not originally selected as a crop. Improving quinoa production in these areas will benefit from the introduction of advantageous traits from free-living relatives that are native to these, or similar, environments. As part of an ongoing effort to characterize the primary and secondary germplasm pools for quinoa, we report the complete mitochondrial and chloroplast genome sequences of quinoa accession PI 614886 and the identification of sequence variants in additional accessions from quinoa and related species.

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Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa) is a highly nutritious grain identified as an important crop to improve world food security. Unfortunately, few resources are available to facilitate its genetic improvement. Here we report the assembly of a high-quality, chromosome-scale reference genome sequence for quinoa, which was produced using single-molecule real-time sequencing in combination with optical, chromosome-contact and genetic maps.

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Premise Of The Study: The amaranth genus contains many important grain and weedy species. We further our understanding of the genus through the development of a complete reference chloroplast genome.

Methods And Results: A high-quality Amaranthus hypochondriacus (Amaranthaceae) chloroplast genome assembly was developed using long-read technology.

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