From Wild Halophyte to Future Crop: Genomic Insights into Salicornia
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Amid escalating water scarcity and groundwater depletion, halophytes such as Salicornia offer sustainable solution for saltwater-based agriculture. Salicornia, a genus in the Amaranthaceae family, is valued for its edible succulent stems and oil-rich seeds, yet its genetic improvement has been constrained by limited genomic resources. We present chromosome-scale, annotated genome assemblies for six Salicornia species and identified four distinct subgenomes within the genus. Comparative transcriptomic analyses reveals genes associated with high shoot Na+ accumulation, a key salt tolerance mechanism. Phylogenetic clustering and population structure analyses of a globally representative resequencing panel highlight interspecies relationships and reveal misclassification at both the accession and species levels. The curated panel represents a robust resource for genetic studies and breeding. These genomic resources lay the foundation for the domestication of Salicornia as a climate-resilient crop for saltwater agricultural systems. *Yunchuan Wang & Laxman Adhikari contributed equally.
