Draft genome sequence of an invasive plant Lantana camara L.

Abstract

Lantana camara L. is an invasive species of global concern. An ornamental plant originating from central America, it has now spread across natural and human-dominated habitats across tropical and subtropical regions globally. Understanding the population and evolutionary genetics of this species could help gain deeper insights into invasion biology, and provide tools for more effective management. Such investigation would require a relatively good quality genome assembly. While there have been reports of a transcriptome, it has been challenging to construct the genome assembly because of the large genome size. We present here the first draft genome assembly of Lantana camara L. which has an N50 value of 62 Kb, genome completeness of 99.3% and genome coverage of 74.3%. We hope that such an assembly will help researchers study colonization history, the genetic basis of adaptation and invasiveness, and help design strategies to contain the invasiveness of this plant, allowing biodiversity recovery in several parts of the globe.