De novo genome assembly of 7 wild grapevine species

Due to high productivity and commercial versatility, grapevine is now economically the most important horticultural crops worldwide. In 2016, 77 million tons were produced over a total area of 7 million ha (Food and Agriculture Organization). Most of the grape production is based on the cultivation of Vitis vinifera ssp. vinifera varieties. Nowadays, there is a growing demand for resistant varieties that are capable of facing existing and emerging diseases and pests and also to reduce grapevine cultivation reliance on chemical control. Not only an excellent source of nutrition, grape has more recently become a leading model for the fruit development and crafting. Additionally, grape is also an organism of historical and current importance to all biologists in its role as a model for evolutionary, domestication and development process from its wild progenitor, V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris.

Since the first release of genome assembly of Pinot Noir, a famous wine grape worldwide, the development of sequencing technology has contributed to the growing number of Vitis genome assembly, such as cultivated grapevines (V. vinifera ssp. vinifera cv. Pinot Noir clone PN40024, cv. Chkhaveri, cv. Saperavi, cv. Meskhetian green, cv. Rkatsiteli, cv. Cabernet Sauvignon clone 08, cv. Chardonnay clone I10V1, cv. Carmenere clone 02), North America Vitis Species (Vitis aestivalis cv. Norton and Vitis riparia cv. Riparia Gloire de Montpellier) and interspecific hybrid (Vitis cinierea X V. riparia cv. Boerner). Surprisingly, no genome assembly of East Asia Vitis Species has been release, let alone the most vital wild species, V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris.

To change this unfavorable situation, de novo assembly of eight wild Vitis species is now in progress, including V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris, V. riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, Vitis rupestris, Vitis amurensis, Vitis bryoniifolia, Vitis davidii and Vitis pseudoreticulata. By combining the third-generation sequencing technology, Hi-C sequencing and the advance assembly protocals, the consequent high-quality assembly sequence will have a great influence of grape research community and wine enthusiasts.