Data from: Genome sequence of Striga asiatica provides insight into the evolution of plant parasitism

Parasitic plants in the genus Striga, commonly known as witchweeds, cause major crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa and pose a threat to agriculture worldwide. An understanding of Striga parasite biology, which could lead to agricultural solutions, has been hampered by the lack of genome information. Here we report the draft genome sequence of Striga asiatica with 34,577 predicted protein-coding genes, which reflects gene family contractions and expansions that are consistent with a three-phase model of parasitic plant genome evolution. Striga seeds germinate in response to host-derived strigolactones (SLs) and then develop a specialised penetration structure, the haustorium, to invade the host root. A family of SL receptors has undergone a striking expansion, suggesting a molecular basis for the evolution of broad host range among Striga spp. We found that genes involved in lateral root development in non-parasitic model species are coordinately induced during haustorium development in Striga, suggesting a pathway that was partly co-opted during the evolution of the haustorium. In addition, we found evidence for horizontal transfer of host genes as well as retrotransposons, indicating gene flow to S. asiatica from hosts. Our results provide valuable insights into the evolution of parasitism and a key resource for the future development of Striga control strategies. SGA.v2.0.final.scaffold.fastaA multifasta file including all Striga asiatica genome scaffolds.Sh14Contig_protein.fastaPredicted protein sequences from transcriptome assembly of Striga hermonthica mRNA isolated from seeds, seedlings, 1, 3 and 7-d haustoria. Note this sequences contain gaps.RT HGT sequencesHorizontally transferred retrotransposon sequences used in Figure 7E and Figure S4 in multifasta format together with phylogenetic tree files.HGTfile for Datadryad.zipSGA2.02_all_CDSA multifasta file containing predicted coding sequences from Striga asiatica genome assembly ver. 2.SGA2.02_all_proteinsA multifasta file containing predicted protein sequences from Striga asiatica genome assembly ver2.Sh14Contig.fastaTranscriptome assembly of Striga hermonthica mRNA isolated from seeds, seedlings, 1, 3 and 7-d haustoria. Note this sequences contain gaps.Sh14Contig_submit_ver2.fastaSGA_annotation.gffA gff3 file with gene annotation on Striga asiatica genome assembly ver2.SGA_functionalannot.gffSh14Contig_functionalannotationFunctional annotation and GO classification of transcriptome assembly of Striga hermonthica made by blast2GO program.