DE NOVO DRAFT ASSEMBLY AND ANNOTATION OF THE MORINGA OLEIFERA GENOME FROM PAKISTAN - Muhammad Tariq Pervez; Syed Hassan Abbas; Masroor Ellahi Babar; Tanveer Hussain (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2026)
Moringa oleifera, commonly known as the horseradish (drumstick tree), is a fast-growing, mineral-rich evergreen tree in the family Moringaceae, with wide applications in herbal medicine, agriculture, and livestock production. Despite its importance, genomic resources remain limited, with only one public draft assembly previously available. This study presents a de novo draft genome of Moringa oleifera from Pakistan, sequenced by the Illumina HiSeq platform using paired-end libraries. The assembly comprises ~205.2 Mb across 13,872 scaffolds (N50 = 17,279 bp) and includes 26,215 predicted protein-coding genes. Assembly quality, supported by completeness assessments, indicates the recovery of 83.9% of embryophyte BUSCOs and 84.68% of CEGMA core genes. This Pakistan-origin reference fills a vital geographic and technical gap for M. oleifera, enabling robust functional annotation and comparative analysis in the Moringa genus. It provides an immediate foundation for marker development and downstream applications in molecular breeding, biotechnology, and stress adaptation research.
Keywords: journal article; Moringa oleifera; genome; assembly; annotation; Pakistan