High‐quality haplotype‐resolved chromosome assembly provides evolutionary insights and targeted steviol glycosides (SGs) biosynthesis in Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Summary Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is popular source of plant‐derived low/no‐calorie natural sweeteners (LNCSs), collectively known as steviol glycosides (SGs). Nevertheless, genetic predisposition for targeted biosynthesis of SGs is complex due to multi‐substrate functionality of key uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Here, we created a high‐quality monoploid assembly of 1.34 Gb with N50 value of 110 Mb, 55 551 predicted protein‐coding genes, and ~80% repetitive regions in Rebaudioside‐A (Reb‐A) enriched cultivar of S. rebaudiana . Additionally, a haplotype‐based chromosome assembly consisting of haplotype A and haplotype B with an overall genome size of 2.33Gb was resolved, harbouring 639 634 variants including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), indels and structural variants (SVs). Furthermore, a lineage‐specific whole genome duplication analysis revealed that gene families encoding UGTs and Cytochrome‐P450 (CYPs) were tandemly duplicated. Additionally, expression analysis revealed five tandemly duplicated gene copies of UGT76G1 having significant correlations with Reb‐A content, and identified key residue (leu200val) in the glycosylation of Reb‐A. Furthermore, missense variations identified in the acceptor region of UGT76G1 in haplotype resolve genome, transcriptional and molecular docking analysis were confirmed with resequencing of 10 diverse stevia genotypes (~25X). Gene regulatory network analysis identified key transcription factors (MYB, bHLH, bZIP and AP2‐ERF) as potential regulators of SG biosynthesis. Overall, this study provides haplotype‐resolved chromosome‐level genome assembly for genome editing and enhancing breeding efforts for targeted biosynthesis of SGs in S. rebaudiana.