The white petunia (Petunia axillaris) is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), native to South America. It is a wild relative of one of the most popular flowers in horticulture, the garden petunia (Petunia × hybrida). The white petunia is also often grown in gardens due to its large flowers and strong scent at night time, caused by the volatile compounds benzaldehyde and methyl benzoate. Its genome provides insights into the evolution of the cultivated petunia. The white petunia genome is diploid and has a size of 1.4 Gb.
Genome release:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nplants201674
Bombarely, A., Moser, M., Amrad, A., Bao, M., Bapaume, L., Barry, C.S., Bliek, M., Boersma, M.R., Borghi, L., Bruggmann, R. and Bucher, M., 2016. Insight into the evolution of the Solanaceae from the parental genomes of Petunia hybrida. Nature plants, 2(6), p.16074.
Content written by Galyna Vakulenko Summer Intern 2018
