The ancestral karyotype of the Heliantheae Alliance, herbicide resistance, and human allergens: Insights from the genomes of common and giant ragweed

Abstract Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Ambrosia trifida (Asteraceae) are important pest species and the two greatest sources of aeroallergens globally. Here, we took advantage of a hybrid to simplify genome assembly and present chromosome‐level assemblies for both species. These assemblies show high levels of completeness with Benchmarking Universal Single‐Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) scores of 94.5% for A. artemisiifolia and 96.1% for A. trifida and long terminal repeat (LTR) Assembly Index values of 26.6 and 23.6, respectively. The genomes were annotated using RNA data identifying 41,642 genes in A. artemisiifolia and 50,203 in A. trifida. More than half of the genome is composed of repetitive elements, with 62% in A. artemisiifolia and 69% in A. trifida. Single copies of herbicide resistance‐associated genes PPX2L, HPPD, and ALS were found, while two copies of the EPSPS gene were identified; this latter observation may reveal a possible mechanism of resistance to the herbicide glyphosate. Ten of the 12 main allergenicity genes were also localized, some forming clusters with several copies, especially in A. artemisiifolia. The evolution of genome structure has differed among these two species. The genome of A. trifida has undergone greater rearrangement, possibly the result of chromoplexy. In contrast, the genome of A. artemisiifolia retains a structure that makes the allotetraploidization of the most recent common ancestor of the Heliantheae Alliance the clearest feature of its genome. When compared to other Heliantheae Alliance species, this allowed us to reconstruct the common ancestor's karyotype—a key step for furthering of our understanding of the evolution and diversification of this economically and allergenically important group.