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Chromosome-level genome assembly of Utricularia aurea Lour., a canivorious higher plant with minute genome

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Abstract

Utricularia aurea Lour. is an aquatic herbaceous plant with yellow flowers and a unique insect-trapping mechanism, distributed in several regions of China and other Asian countries. In this study, we assembled a chromosome-scale genome of U. aurea with a size of approximately 180.31 Mb and a contig N50 length of 7.2 Mb. Using Oxford Nanopore long reads and Hi-C sequencing data, 99.99% of the assembled sequences were anchored onto 20 pseudo-chromosomes. We predicted a total of 33,365 protein-coding genes, of which 97.33% were functionally annotated using public databases including NR, GO, KOG, KEGG, and Swissprot. Additionally, we identified 117 rRNAs, 509 sRNAs and 382 tRNAs from the genome. The chromosome-scale Utricularia aurea genome will facilitate investigations into the genomic basis of its carnivorous adaptation, improve our understanding of the evolution history of carnivorous habits in Utricularia, and enrich research on the adaptive evolution of carnivorous plant genomes.

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Data availability

The genome assembly of Utricularia aurea is available in GenBank under accession number JBPYBC000000000 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/genome/GCA_056322005.1/), linked to BioProject PRJNA1289348 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA1289348) including SRA database with accession number SRR3484300033, SRR3484415234, SRR3484415335, SRR34844667- SRR3484467036,37,38,39. All raw sequencing data and assembled sequences are publicly accessible. The assembled genome and annotation results have been deposited in the figshare database (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29833016)41.

Code availability

All data analyses were performed using standard bioinformatic tools that can freely obtained to the public, with parameters and software versions are detailed in the Methods section and Supplementary Table S1. All software and code utilized in this study are publicly accessible.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology Innovation Platform Plan Project (2024CSA071) and the National Science and Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China (2019FY101809).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Economic Forest Germplasm Improvement and Resources Comprehensive Utilization, Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for the Characteristic Resources Exploitation of Dabie Mountains, Huanggang Normal University, Huangzhou, 438000, China

    Jiaojun Yu, Shisheng Li & Hongjin Dong

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  1. Jiaojun Yu
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  2. Shisheng Li
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  3. Hongjin Dong
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Contributions

Jiaojun Yu, Shisheng Li, Hongjin Dong conceived and designed the study, and revised the manuscript. Shisheng Li, Hongjin Dong collected plant material. Jiaojun Yu performed experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.

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Hongjin Dong.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Table S1-S5 (download XLSX )

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Yu, J., Li, S. & Dong, H. Chromosome-level genome assembly of Utricularia aurea Lour., a canivorious higher plant with minute genome.
Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07285-1

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