Search

Rosa laevigata is an excellent rose germplasm, highly resistant to aphid, and immune to both rose black spot and powdery mildew disease. It is also a well-known edible plant with a long history of medicinal use in China, having the effects of improving kidney function, inhibiting arteriosclerosis, and reducing inflammation. In this study, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-scale genome for R. laevigata by combining Illumina, PacBio, and Hi-C data, which has a length of approximately 494.2 Mb with a scaffold N50 of 68.6 Mb. A total of 493.2 Mb (99.8%) of the draft genome sequences were anchored on seven pseudochromosomes and two gapless pseudochromosomes were included in the final genome assembly. A total of 37,117 protein-coding genes were predicted, 34,047 of which were functionally annotated. Repeat annotation revealed 659,558 (285.6 Mb) repeat elements, accounting for 57.8% of the genome. The chromosome-scale genome provides valuable information to facilitate comparative genomic analysis of rose family and will accelerate genome-guided breeding and germplasm improvement of both R. laevigata itself and modern roses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) is a class of plant-specific transcription factors and plays vital roles in plant development and evolution. Here, we analyzed WOX family genes of three Rosa species and explored their potential functions in Rosa. A total of 351 WOX genes were identified from Rosa chinensis 'Old Blush' (208), Rosa wichuraiana 'Basye's Thornless' (21) and Rosa rugosa (122). The WOX genes were found to significantly expand in Rosa compared to Arabidopsis. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Rosa WOXs genes were classified into an ancient clade, an intermediate clade, and a WUS clade. Collinearity analysis suggested that gene duplication and purifying selection might be important driving forces in the evolution of WOXs. Expression patterns of WOXs found that higher levels of RcWUS1 expression were detected at the shoot apex somatic embryos. Furthermore, we found that RcWUS1 was a transcriptional repressor located in the nucleus. Overexpression of RcWUS1 enhanced the regeneration efficiency of somatic embryos. In summary, our results indicated the functional potential of RcWUS1 in embryogenic transformation, which can be further utilized to improve the genetic transformation efficiency in rose., (© 2025 The Author(s). The Plant Genome published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Crop Science Society of America.)