Publications by authors named "Sheron A Simpson"

Article Synopsis
  • The Mexican fruit fly, Anastrepha ludens, is a significant agricultural pest in North and Central America, but a detailed genome assembly had not been created until now.
  • Researchers successfully developed a chromosome-level genome using advanced sequencing technologies, resulting in a comprehensive assembly of 140 scaffolds that captures essential genetic information.
  • The study also identified sex chromosomes with a focus on evolutionary trends, showing that genes linked to the X chromosome evolve faster than those on autosomes, offering new insights into the evolution of sex chromosomes in these fruit flies.
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The genus belongs to the Hydrangeaceae family, in the Cornales order of flowering plants, which early diverged among the Asterids, and includes several species that are commonly used ornamental plants. Of them, is one of the most valuable species in the nursery trade, yet few genomic resources are available for this crop or closely related Asterid species. Two high-quality haplotype-resolved reference genomes of hydrangea cultivars 'Veitchii' and 'Endless Summer' [highest quality at 2.

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As sequencing costs decrease and availability of high fidelity long-read sequencing increases, generating experiment specific genome assemblies becomes feasible. In many crop species, obtaining the genome of a hybrid or heterozygous individual is necessary for systems that do not tolerate inbreeding or for investigating important biological questions, such as hybrid vigor. However, most genome assembly methods that have been used in plants result in a merged single sequence representation that is not a true biologically accurate representation of either haplotype within a diploid individual.

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Background: Muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia) is resistant to many of the pathogens that negatively impact the production of common grape (V. vinifera), including the bacterial pathogen Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa (Xfsf), which causes Pierce's Disease (PD).

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Introduction: Virginia-type peanut, , is the second largest market class of peanut cultivated in the United States. It is mainly used for large-seeded, in-shell products. Historically, Virginia-type peanut cultivars were developed through long-term recurrent phenotypic selection and wild species introgression projects.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on understanding the genetic factors behind plant vigor, particularly in rice, and highlights the complexity of mapping this trait due to many genes with small effects and their interactions.
  • Researchers performed a long-read genomic assembly of a tropical japonica rice variety, Carolina Gold, to identify significant structural mutations and understand how these changes affect crop performance.
  • The findings indicate a history of tandem duplications and transposable element activity that contributed to genomic size variations, with structural mutations affecting gene exons being selected against in rice breeding programs over the last century.
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Background: Aflatoxin contamination in peanut seeds is still a serious problem for the industry and human health. No stable aflatoxin resistant cultivars have yet been produced, and given the narrow genetic background of cultivated peanuts, wild species became an important source of genetic diversity. Wild peanut seeds, however, are not abundant, thus, an effective method of screening for aflatoxin accumulation using minimal seeds is highly desirable.

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Transmissible colistin resistance in the form of an mcr-1-gene-bearing plasmid has been recently reported in Enterobacteriaceae in several parts of the world. We report here the completed genome sequence of an Escherichia coli strain isolated from swine in the United States that carried the mcr-1 gene on an IncI2-type plasmid.

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Pouteria sapota is known for its edible fruits that contain unique carotenoids, as well as for its fungitoxic, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activity. However, its genetics is mostly unknown, including aspects about its genetic diversity and domestication process. We did high-throughput sequencing of microsatellite-enriched libraries of P.

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