Chromosome-scale genome assembly of an important medicinal plant honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica (honeysuckle) is one of the most important medicinal plants and widely utilized in traditional Chinese medicine. At present, there are many varieties of honeysuckle used in cultivation, among which Sijihua variety are widely cultivated due to its wide adaptability, stress resistance, early flowering and high yield. In this study, we assembled the genome of Sijihua, which was approximately 886.04 Mb in size with a scaffold N50 of 79.5 Mb. 93.28% of the total assembled sequences were anchored to 9 pseudo-chromosomes by using PacBio long reads and Hi-C sequencing data. We predicted 39,320 protein-coding genes and 92.87% of them could be annotated in NR, GO, KOG, KEGG and other databases. In addition, we identified 644 tRNAs, 2,156 rRNAs, 109 miRNAs and 5,502 pseudogenes from the genome. The chromosome-scale genome of Sijihua will be a significant resource for understanding the genetic basis of high stress-resistance, which will facilitate further study of the genetic diversity and accelerate the genetic improvement and breeding of L. japonica.