Welcome to MilkweedBase
MilkweedBase adheres to the Toronto agreement on prepublication data release
All data deposited on MilkweedBase adhere to the Toronto Agreement on prepublication data release. To foster a transparent and accessible data sharing culture, all data deposited on MilkweedBase will be made public immediately. Data users are expected to respect scientific etiquette and allow data producers to publish the first global analyses of their data set. Please be aware that pre-publication data may not have been subject to full quality control and peer review, so caution must be applied when utilizing these data.
A milkweed plant (Image Credit: Anurag Agrawal) 
Structure of aspecioside, a milkweed cardiac glycoside |
Asclepias syriaca, known as the common milkweed, is found throughout northeastern and southeastern parts of the United States. Asclepias produce cardenolides, a subclass of cardiac glycosides that contain steroidal toxins poisonous to insects and animals when consumed. There is a lack of high quality genomic information regarding A. syriaca to explore the cardenolide biosynthetic pathway and to comparatively analyze against similar species that do not produce cardiac glycosides.
A previously published A. syriaca genome was sequenced using Illumina sequencing with 0.5x sequence coverage in order to demonstrate that small amounts of short reads can produce a genomic resource for the community (Straub, et al. 2011). The Jander lab sequenced the genome using PacBio with >300x coverage, generating longer reads, and the genome was assembled using Falcon Assembler. Long read technology is better at spanning repeat regions than short read technologies, resulting in more contiguous assemblies. The PacBio assembly was polished to create a refined A. syricaca genome, which was used to identify gene families. The new assembly will provide more genomic information for annotation and gene prediction, and will contribute more information for further genomic research concerning milkweeds, its evolution, and similar plants.
New Guide to Milkweed Pollination Available! |
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