Format: ORAL

Emily Haley, Alex Twyford and Andrew Hudson

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Pangenome analysis can capture structural variants present in genomes from across a group and can be used to understand the evolution of species. Species in the genus Antirrhinum (Snapdragons) have been split into three morphological sections, relating to their ecology: Antirrhinum, Streptosepalum and Kickxiella. Section Antirrhinum and Streptosepalum species are tall, upright grassland plants, whereas section Kickxiella are small, prostrate alpines. Phylogenetic analyses indicate there was a basal split of section Antirrhinum from sections Kickxiella and Streptosepalum, but there has been a second independent evolution of Kickxiella morphology from within the section Antirrhinum. We examined how sharing of genomic structural variants between species provides insights into the evolutionary history of the genus. Long read genome sequencing and assembly was carried out for a species from section Streptosepalum, and two species from section Kickxiella. Using these genomes, as well as two Antirrhinum genomes previously published, a multispecies pangenome was generated and used to identify structural variants. Whole genome short read sequences from samples across the genus were mapped to the pangenome to determine if the identified structural variants are shared by species within an Antirrhinum section. This allowed us to gain insights into the evolution of the Kickxiella species.