Whole Genome Assembly and Annotation of Persea americana

Due to growing market demand, 90% of cultivated avocado corresponds to the cultivar Hass, which in Mexico is commonly grafted on Mexican race (P. americana var. drymifolia) rootstock (6). This practice makes it possible to maintain high productivity as the indigenous race is well-adapted to Mexican highland soils. The Hass cultivar and Mexican race were chosen to generate reference genomes (SI Appendix, section 1). Additionally, to explore the genetic diversity available in avocado, we resequenced representative individuals from the 3 avocado botanical varieties (vars. drymifolia, guatemalensis, and americana), including the disease-resistant rootstock Velvick (8), an additional Hass specimen and the early flowering/fruiting Hass somatic mutant Carmen Hass cultivar [otherwise known as Mendez No. 1 (6, 9)], as well as wild avocados of the West Indian variety (P. americana var. costaricensis). Persea shiedeana (the edible coyo), a species relatively closely related to P. americana (10), was also included (SI Appendix, Tables S1 and S2).