A strongly improved assembly of the pearl millet reference genome using OxfordNanopore long reads and optical mapping

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.)) R. Br. syn. Cenchrus americanus (L.) Morrone) is an important crop in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa which contributes to ensure food security. Its genome has an estimated size of 1.76 Gb and displays a high level of repetitiveness above 80%. A first assembly was previously obtained for the Tift 23D2B1-P1-P5 cultivar genotype using short-read sequencing technologies. This assembly is however incomplete and fragmented with around 200 Mb unplaced on chromosomes. We report here an improved quality assembly of the pearl millet Tift 23D2B1-P1-P5 cultivar genotype obtained with an approach combining Oxford Nanopore long reads and Bionano Genomics optical maps. This strategy allowed us to add around 200 Mb at the chromosome-level assembly. Moreover we strongly improved continuity in the order of the contigs and scaffolds wihtin the chromosomes, particularly in the centromeric regions. Notably, we added more than 100 Mb around the centromeric region on chromosome 7. This new assembly also displayed a higher gene completeness with a complete BUSO score of 98.4% using the Poales database. This more complete and higher quality assembly of the Tift 23D2B1-P1-P5 genotype now available to the community will help in the development of research on the role of structural variants, and more broadly in genomics studies and the breeding of pearl millet.