Progress on the Genome Characterisation of Disocorea alata

Yam is a staple crop of great agricultural, cultural and economic significance to Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, South Pacific and Asia. Further insight into the genomics of yam species, including Dioscorea alata, would provide a useful resource for comparative analysis with other staple and orphan crop species around the globe. We have generated the reference genome sequences, assemblies and annotation for D. alata with the aim of carrying out comparative genomic analysis for yam and other related crop species. The de novo genome assembly and the newly created annotations will be made available through the TGAC’s resource page. All data is freely available and submitted to the relevant databases. Insight gained into the genomic content of D alata will open up avenues for perusing transgenic approaches in other crop species and also generating arrays for wider use in referenced and unreferenced crop species.