NCM 2022: Draft genome of mortiño (Vaccinium floribundum), a wild berry species of the Andean paramo

Mortiño (Vaccinium floribundum) is a wild berry species that inhabits the Andean paramo, a high-altitude tundra-like ecosystem. This ecosystem is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and human intervention, which affects mortiño by reducing the areas where it grows. To date, there is no genetic information that would help elucidate the phylogeny of the mortiño, which would improve our understanding of its population status and contribute to its conservation.

The main objective of this research was to create genomic resources to further study mortiño. High-molecular-weight DNA was extracted and sequenced using nanopore technology. Long reads were assembled with Canu (2700 contigs, N50=0.5 Mb), wtdbg2 (2906 contigs, N50=0.8 Mb), and Flye (691 contigs, N50=3 Mb). BUSCO metric identified 86% (Canu), 72% (SMART de novo), and 93.1% (Flye) of the conserved orthologs as complete.

The genomic resources generated in this study could provide vital information to better conserve and use V. floribundum.