Within the framework of the Catalan Initiative for the Biogenome Project (CBP) and funded by the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Multidisciplinary Consortium is established to coordinate the construction of reference genomes of eukaryotic plant species from the Catalan territories. The consortium consists of experts in the fields of biodiversity, ethnobotany, systematics, evolution, agriculture, physiology, genomics, and ecology.

The project includes the generation of high-quality reference genomes for 13 species (seven of them detailed below), representing the floristic and territorial diversity of the Catalan Countries.

• Molopospermum peloponnesiacum, a subalpine species with medicinal and nutritional properties.

• Trifolium alpinum, an alpine species of great value for pasture and also used in the human food sector.

• Prunus cerasifera, a wild relative of the plum, almond, cherry, and cherry plum, all trees of great economic interest in Catalonia.

• Leontodon longirostris, a cosmopolitan plant used as a model for evolutionary studies.

• Hypericum balearicum, an endemic species of the Balearic Islands.

• Rapistrum rugosum, an invasive plant.

•  Cardamine amporitana, a tetraploid endemic from the northeast of Catalonia.

The general objectives of this proposal are to increase the number of reference genomes of plant species in the EBP catalog, currently underrepresented compared to other organisms; and to increase the visibility of the CBP within the EBP.

The achievement of these general objectives will be carried out through the construction of these reference genomes using a combination of PacBio (long-read fragments) and Hi-C (chromatin conformation) and Nanopore (long-read), Illumina (short-read), and Hi-C. The generated data will be processed following EBP protocols for genome assembly, and a high-quality reference genome will be generated for each of the species.



THE ROLE OF CNAG

The CNAG will sequence Hi-C libraries for each of the 13 plant species.

COORDINATION

Laura Botigué (CRAG) will coordinate the project.