The Anthocereos Genome Project

The monophyletic group of hornworts is believed to represent the immediate sister group of all vascular land plants. However, this traditional view is still debated and cannot be satisfactorily resolved owing to the lack of detailed knowledge on the general biology and genomic features of hornworts. Until now, advancement in this field was primarily hindered by the lack of a hornwort model species appropriate for experimental work. Here we describe the establishment of a tractable model species for hornworts, Anthoceros agrestis, and its genomic features. We provide detailed protocols to grow A. agrestis throughout its life cycle in axenic culture. Furthermore, we show that A. agrestis has a remarkably small genome, with few recent paralogs, which makes it approriate for genetic analysis. Finally, we report on the genomic features of the chloroplast, mitochondrion and nuclear genomes and compare those with algal and vascular land plant genomes. We will also summarize our achievements and provide a list of issues that need to be resolved in the future.