AUTHOR=Zagorščak Maja , Zrimec Jan , Bleker Carissa , Nolte Nadja , Juteršek Mojca , Ramšak Živa , Gruden Kristina , Petek Marko 

TITLE=Evidence-based unification of potato gene models with the UniTato collaborative genome browser

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1352253

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2024.1352253

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Potato (<italic>Solanum tuberosum</italic>) is the most popular tuber crop and a model organism. A variety of gene models for potato exist, and despite frequent updates, they are not unified. This hinders the comparison of gene models across versions, limits the ability to reuse experimental data without significant re-analysis, and leads to missing or wrongly annotated genes. Here, we unify the recent potato double monoploid v4 and v6 gene models by developing an automated merging protocol, resulting in a Unified poTato genome model (UniTato). We subsequently established an Apollo genome browser (<underline>unitato.nib.si</underline>) that enables public access to UniTato and further community-based curation. We demonstrate how the UniTato resource can help resolve problems with missing or misplaced genes and can be used to update or consolidate a wider set of gene models or genome information. The automated protocol, genome annotation files, and a comprehensive translation table are provided at <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://github.com/NIB-SI/unitato" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">github.com/NIB-SI/unitato</ext-link>.</p>