Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an allotetraploid seed crop with the potential to help address global food security concerns. Genomes have been assembled for four accessions of quinoa; however, all assemblies are fragmented and do not reflect known chromosome biology. Here, we use in vitro and in vivo Hi-C data to produce a chromosome-scale assembly of the Chilean accession PI 614886 (QQ74). The final assembly spans 1.326 Gb, of which 90.5% is assembled into 18 chromosome-scale scaffolds. The genome is annotated with 54,499 protein-coding genes, 96.9% of which are located on the 18 largest scaffolds. We also report an updated genome assembly for the B-genome diploid C. suecicum and use it, together with the A-genome diploid C. pallidicaule, to identify genomic rearrangements within the quinoa genome, including a large pericentromeric inversion representing 71.7% of chromosome Cq3B. Repetitive sequences comprise 65.2%, 48.6%, and 57.9% of the quinoa, C. pallidicaule, and C. suecicum genomes, respectively. Evidence suggests that the B subgenome is more dynamic and has expanded more than the A subgenome. These genomic resources will enable more accurate assessments of genome evolution within the Amaranthaceae and will facilitate future efforts to identify variation in genes underlying important agronomic traits in quinoa.
© 2023. The Author(s).