Project description:<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Traditional Chinese medicine has used <em>Peucedanum praeruptorum</em> Dunn (Apiaceae) for a long time. Various coumarins, including the significant root constituents Praeruptorin (A-E), are the active constituents of the dried roots of P. praeruptorum. Previous transcriptomic and metabolomic studies attempted to elucidate the distribution and biosynthetic network of these medicinal-valuable compounds. However, the lack of a high-quality reference genome impedes an in-depth understanding of genetic traits and, thus, the development of better breeding strategies.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The authors assembled a telomere-to-telomere genome by combining PacBio HiFi, ONT ultra- long and Hi-C data. The final genome assembly was approximately 1.798 Gb, assigned to 11 chromosomes and genome completeness >98%. Comparative genomic analysis suggested that <em>P. praeruptorum</em> experienced two WGD events like the ones in the Apiaceae family. By the transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of the coumarin metabolic pathway, we presented coumarins' spatial and temporal distribution and the expression patterns of critical genes for its biosynthesis. Notably, the <em>COSY</em> and cytochrome <em>P450</em> genes showed tandem duplications on several chromosomes, which may be responsible for the high accumulation of coumarins.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSIONS:</strong> The authors obtained a T2T genome for <em>P. praeruptorum</em>, which provides molecular insights into the chromosomal distribution of the coumarin biosynthetic genes. This high-quality genome is an essential resource for designing engineering strategies for improving the production of these valuable compounds.</p>
