A telomere-to-telomere gap-free reference genome of watermelon and its mutation library provide important resources for gene discovery and breeding

Watermelon,Citrullus lanatus,is the world's third largest fruit crop.Reference genomes with gaps and a narrow genetic base hinder functional genomics and genetic improvement of watermelon.Here,we report the assembly of a telomere-to-telomere gap-free genome of the elite watermelon inbred line G42 by incorporating high-coverage and accurate long-read sequencing data with multiple assembly strategies.All 11 chromosomes have been assembled into single-contig pseudomolecules without gaps,representing the highest completeness and assembly quality to date.The G42 reference genome is 369321829 bp in length and contains 24205 predicted protein-coding genes,with all 22 telomeres and 11 centromeres characterized.Furthermore,we established a pollen-EMS mutagenesis protocol and obtained over 200000M1 seeds from G42.In a sampling pool,48 monogenic phenotypic mutations,selected from 223M1and 78 M2 mutants with morphological changes,were confirmed.The average mutation density was 1 SNP/1.69Mband1 indel/4.55 Mb per M1 plant and 1SNP/1.08Mb and 1 indel/6.25 Mb per M2 plant.Taking advantage of the gap-free G42 genome,8039 mutations from 32 plants sampled from M1 and M2 families were identified with 100%accuracy,whereas only 25% of the randomly selected mutations identified using the 97103v2 reference genome could be confirmed.Using this library and the gap-free genome,two genes responsible for elongated fruit shape and male sterility(CiMs1)were identified,both caused by a single basechange from G to A.The validated gap-free genome and its EMS mutation library provide invaluable resources for functional genomics and genetic improvement of watermelon.