AUTHOR=Liang Ying , Chen Shanshan , Wei Kunhua , Yang Zijiang , Duan Shengchang , Du Yuan , Qu Peng , Miao Jianhua , Chen Wei , Dong Yang 

TITLE=Chromosome Level Genome Assembly of Andrographis paniculata

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2020.00701

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2020.00701

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Andrographis paniculata</italic> (Chinese name: Chuanxinlian) is an annual dicotyledonous medicinal plant widely grown in China and Southeast Asia. The dried plant has a highly acclaimed usage in the traditional Chinese medicine for its antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects. In order to help delineate the biosynthetic pathways of various secondary metabolites, we report in this study a high-quality reference genome for <italic>A. paniculata</italic>. With the help of both PacBio single molecule real time sequencing and Illumina sequencing reads for error correction, the <italic>A. paniculata</italic> genome was assembled into a total size of 284 Mb with a contig N50 size of 5.14 Mb. The contigs were further assembled into 24 pseudo-chromosomes by the Hi-C technique. We also analyzed the gene families (e.g., <italic>KSL</italic>, and <italic>CYP450</italic>) whose protein products are essential for synthesizing bioactive compounds in <italic>A. paniculata.</italic> In conclusion, the high-quality <italic>A. paniculata</italic> genome assembly builds the foundation for decoding the biosynthetic pathways of various medicinal compounds.</p>