Format: ORAL

Yan C. Rizzieri1,2 and Fay-Wei Li1,2

1 Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, USA. 2 Plant Biology Section, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA.

In Chlorophyceae, the OCC clade (Oedegoniales, Chaetopeltidales and Chaetophorales) corresponds to more than a thousand of understudied algae species. They present a variety of interesting features such as the diversity of cellular organization complexity, presence/absence of plasmodesmata, and CO2 concentration mechanisms. However, the lack of genomic resources from the OCC clade limits further investigation into their unique biology. To address this genomic gap, we are currently sequencing four genomes that cover all the three orders in the OCC clade, using a combination of short and long read sequencing, as well as Hi-C scaffolding approach. We expect the resulting chromosome level genome assemblies will not only shed light into the genomic landscape in the OCC clade, but also form the basis for broader comparative analyses across chlorophyte algae.