A novel mitogenome for Euterpe precatoria (Arecaceae)

Mitochondrial genomes from plants, known as mitogenomes, typically exhibit unique characteristics such as large size, limited gene content, and significant structural variation. Peculiarly, within the palm family (Arecaceae), these genomes display dynamic architecture marked by extensive sizes, fragmentation, and recombination activity.

This complexity creates substantial bioinformatic hurdles, considering the scarcity of complete palm mitochondrial genomes accessible to researchers. To date, only three such palm mitochondrial genomes are publicly available. In this study, researchers have unveiled the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Amazonian palm, Euterpe precatoria, using PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing data.

The assembly process necessitated meticulous manual curation and graph tracing to navigate the intricate recombination topology. The final resolved sequence comprises 1,268,308 base pairs, backed by a mean read coverage depth of approximately 746 times. Annotation of the genome unveiled a high degree of structural complexity, encompassing 177 total gene features corresponding to 76 distinct genes.

This gene set includes 41 unique protein-coding genes, 32 unique tRNA genes, and three unique rRNA genes, which reflect the common genetic duplication and fragmentation observed in Arecaceae. This comprehensive mitochondrial genome sequence is now publicly accessible, providing a robust resource for studying the mechanisms of plant mitochondrial genome expansion and structural evolution.