Scientists assembled a complete genome of an ornamental banana relative with bright bracts and used it to trace how the banana family's chromosomes shrank from 17 pairs to as few as 9. The same shuffled regions carry genes that control the pigments behind colorful bracts.
1
Built a telomere-to-telomere, gap-free genome of Musa exotica, an early-branching ornamental banana with brightly colored bracts.
2
Reconstructed an ancestral Musaceae karyotype with 17 chromosomes (n = 17), with stepwise reductions to n = 11, 10, and 9 through lineage-specific inter-chromosomal rearrangements.
3
Rearranged regions are enriched for anthocyanin pathway genes (CHS, F3H, MYB, bHLH); bract color is driven by coordinated expression of CHS, CHI, F3'5'H and ANS, largely independent of gene copy number.
mail
Weekly plant science — one email, Saturdays.
Check your inbox to confirm — link expires in 24 hours.
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many signup attempts from your network. Try again in an hour, or email hello@plant.news.
