Format: ORAL

Fay-Wei Li1

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

Cracking the giant genomes of pteridophytes had been seemed as a formidable challenge. However, thanks to the rapid drop of sequencing cost and the development of highly accurate long-read sequencing, we now have around a dozen pteridophyte genomes already published with many more in the pipeline. Here, I will summarize the current state of pteridophyte genomics and synthesize the trends emerging from comparative analyses. I will particularly highlight the genomic contrasts between homosporous and heterosporous lineages, and discuss the implications on the evolution of chromosome number and genome size. Lastly, I will point out future directions and areas worth exploring further.