Assembling and Annotating the Genome of a Plant Parasitic Nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, with Sequences Obtained Using 2Nd Generation Sequencing Technologies

Sanders, W. S., Showmaker, K. C., Bartlett, B. D., Wang, H, Ganji, S., Wubben, M., McCarthy, F.M., Magbanua, Z. V., & Peterson, D. G. (2012). Assembling and Annotating the Genome of a Plant Parasitic Nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, with Sequences Obtained Using 2Nd Generation Sequencing Technologies. MCBIOS 2012. University of Mississippi.

Rotylenchulus reniformis (the reniform nematode) is a plant parasitic nematode with a primarily tropical and subtropical geographic distribution. The reniform nematode is an emerging problem in US cotton production, causing an estimated annual $130,000,000 USD crop loss. Adult females establish feeding sites in the plant root, where the head portion of the nematode is positioned inside the plant root and the external tail portion begins to swell, developing a kidney-like shape. Understanding of the genome structure of this organism can help provide insight into the mechanisms of its parasitism and aid in the development of reniform resistant cotton lines. Genomic reniform DNA was isolated and sequences were generated using two platforms, combining both Illumina Sequencing-by-Synthesis and Roche 454 Pyrosequencing technologies. Sequences were assembled using the ABySS assembly algorithm. Here we present the current status of the Rotylenchulus reniformis genome sequencing project and discuss the present state of our draft assembly and the associated annotations.