A complete reference genome assembly for foxtail millet and Setaria-db, a comprehensive database for Setaria
Qiang He, Chunchao Wang, Qiang He, Jun Zhang, Hongkai Liang, Zefu Lu, Kun Xie, Sha Tang, Yuhan Zhou, Bin Liu, Hui Zhi, Guanqing Jia, Ganggang Guo, Huilong Du, Xianmin Diao, Huilong Du, Xianmin Diao
Abstract
Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and its wild ancestor green foxtail (S. viridis), are two C4 genetic model plants known for their desirable traits, such as small size, short life cycle, ease of transformation, and a compact genome size (∼420 Mb) (He et al., 2023). Foxtail millet stands out as the only cultivated species within the Setaria genus. As a foundational crop for ancient east Asian agriculture civilization, it possesses remarkable drought and soil-nutrient deficiency tolerance. This makes it increasingly relevant in the era of climate change.