The ricebean genome provides insight into Vigna genome evolution and facilitates genetic enhancement

Abstract

Ricebean [Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi and Ohashi] (2n = 2x = 22) is a warm-season dietary pulse legume crop and was originated in the Indo-China region. It is known to provide food security to the small and marginal farmers of South and South-East Asia. Ricebean is well known for its high nutritional quality and resistance to bacterial leaf spot, Mungbean yellow mosaic virus and bruchid, which are devastating for the other Vigna family crops (Dhaliwal et al., 2022). We report a reference grade de novo genome assembly, which is anchored to the genetic linkage groups and covered almost the whole estimated genome length of ricebean and so far, the largest among the sequenced Vigna species.