High-quality genome and methylomes illustrate features underlying evolutionary success of oaks

Abstract

The genus Quercus, which emerged ~55 million years ago during globally warm temperatures, diversified into ~450 species. We present a high-quality de novo genome assembly of a California endemic oak, Quercus lobata, revealing features consistent with oak evolutionary success. Effective population size remained large throughout history despite declining since the early Miocene. Analysis of 39,373 mapped protein-coding genes outlined copious duplications consistent with genetic and phenotypic diversity, both by retention of genes created during the ancient γ whole genome hexaploid duplication event and by tandem duplication within families, including the numerous resistance genes and also unexpected candidate genes for an incompatibility system involving multiple non-self-recognition genes. An additional surprising finding is that subcontext-specific patterns of DNA methylation associated with transposable elements reveal broadly-distributed heterochromatin in intergenic regions, similar to grasses (another highly successful taxon). Collectively, these features promote genetic and phenotypic variation that would facilitate adaptability to changing environments.