Prunus persica (peach) has long served as a model fruit tree for studying phenological events. The peach variety ‘Lovell 2D’ was used to generate one of the first high-quality genome assemblies for a tree species, using Sanger sequencing of genetic-map ordered BAC clones. A key to the high quality of this early assembly was the use of a doubled haploid variety, which eliminates the challenges posed by mixed haplotypes. Here, we sequenced and re-assembled the ‘Lovell 2D’ genome along with a doubled haploid sibling ‘Lovell 5D’ using 3rd generation technologies. The resulting genomes were significantly more contiguous than the current ‘Lovell 2D’ reference genome (ver2.0 updated in 2017) and are closer to the estimated total genome size for peach (265 Mb). In addition, new gene, transposable element (TE), and Nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) annotations were performed to enhance the integrity and utility of the genome. These updated peach doubled-haploid reference assemblies will provide the research community with an improved reference genome for genomics-guided studies and breeding efforts.
Gottschalk et al. (2026) studied this question.