Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris cultivar:EL10 Genome sequencing and assembly

Beets have been grown for table sugar (sucrose) for over 150 years, but Beta vulgaris has been grown for much longer, as a leafy chard, as a root vegetable, and as fodder, from which sugar beet was derived. Crop types, and especially wild forms of subspecies maritima, are important sources of variability for sugar beet improvement, especially disease resistance. As an out-crossing species, genetic diversity generally is partitioned within populations, rather than between populations as for self fertile crops. Thus, sugar beet breeding has largely followed a population improvement strategy, where the key feature is less rapid fixation of desirable alleles into cultivars, versus strict selfing. Context and clarity afforded by molecular markers often helps to characterize the distribution of genetic diversity, and locate genes for important agronomic traits. The most appropriate, and least divisible, framework for ultimate context and clarity is a high-quality genome assembly. We developed a nine-scaffold assembly (plus 31 smaller orphan contigs) for this n = x = 9 chromosome species. Distribution of genetic diversity among crop types, characterizing disease resistance genes, and uncovering structural chromosome variants are a few of the short-term goals we have for this genome sequence.