The chromosome-level genome assemblies of two rattans (Calamus simplicifolius and Daemonorops jenkinsiana).

Background: Calamus simplicifolius and Daemonorops jenkinsiana are two representative rattans, the most significant material sources for the rattan industry. However, the lack of reference genome sequences is a major obstacle for basic and applied biology on rattan.

Findings: We produced two chromosome-level genome assemblies of C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana using Illumina, Pacific Biosciences, and Hi-C sequencing data. A total of ∼730 Gb and ∼682 Gb of raw data covered the predicted genome lengths (∼1.98 Gb of C. simplicifolius and ∼1.61 Gb of D. jenkinsiana) to ∼372 × and ∼426 × read depths, respectively. The two de novo genome assemblies, ∼1.94 Gb and ∼1.58 Gb, were generated with scaffold N50s of ∼160 Mb and ∼119 Mb in C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana, respectively. The C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana genomes were predicted to harbor  51,235 and  53,342 intact protein-coding gene models, respectively. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs evaluation demonstrated that genome completeness reached 96.4% and 91.3% in the C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana genomes, respectively. Genome evolution showed that four Arecaceae plants clustered together, and the divergence time between the two rattans was ∼19.3 million years ago. Additionally, we identified 193 and 172 genes involved in the lignin biosynthesis pathway in the C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana genomes, respectively.

Conclusions: We present the first de novo assemblies of two rattan genomes (C. simplicifolius and D. jenkinsiana). These data will not only provide a fundamental resource for functional genomics, particularly in promoting germplasm utilization for breeding, but also serve as reference genomes for comparative studies between and among different species.