A haplotype-resolved, near telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of the desiccation-tolerant plant Vellozia tubiflora

A haplotype-resolved near telomere-to-telomere genome assembly for Vellozia tubiflora was generated, with Hap1 spanning 423.2 Mb and Hap2 spanning 426.4 Mb.

• Why it matters: Genomic resources for Velloziaceae are extremely limited despite many desiccation-tolerant species, limiting comparative and evolutionary study of vegetative desiccation tolerance.
• What they did: Using PacBio HiFi sequencing and Omni-C chromatin conformation data, the study produced haplotype-resolved assemblies anchored into nine chromosome-length scaffolds.
• The result: Hap1 and Hap2 achieved scaffold N50s of 49.8 Mb and 50.0 Mb with 96.5% and 96.8% BUSCO completeness, enabling new comparative and evolutionary insights.