Data From: Chromosome-Scale Assemblies Of Flowering Dogwood Cultivars Enable Identification Of Candidate Genes Regulating Anthocyanin Biosynthesis In Leaves And Bracts

For this study we generated diploid, chromosome-scale, annotated genome assemblies for flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). Genomes for two cultivars, Cherokee Brave™ (pink-bracted and red-leafed) and 'Appalachian Spring' (white-bracted and green-leafed), were assembled. Additionally, a phenotyping protocol for bract color and presence/absence diagnostic SNPs for bract and leaf color were established. We leveraged these resources to evaluate linkage associations and differential gene expression related to anthocyanin biosynthesis to identify candidate genes regulating bract and leaf pigmentation. Within a 14Mb locus we identified 14 anthocyanin-related candidate genes. Two genes, with MYB (g19533) and RING finger (g19556)__ binding domains, had both differential gene expression and variants with the expected segregation pattern. These resources will be valuable in combining pink-red bracts with other traits to advance flowering dogwood breeding.

Here, we have included additional data and outputs for the study. This includes:

• Images used for phenotyping bracts of the "pseudo-F2" population
• Raw outputs of image analysis
• Final phenotype file used for QTL mapping
• Filtered VCF file used for linkage map construction
• Final linkage map
  Organization: Department of Agriculture
  Organization URL: https://catalog.data.gov/organization/usda
  Last updated: 2026-03-11
  Tags: Bract coloration, Flowering dogwood, Horticulture, MYB transcription factor, Ornamental, Quantitative trait loci/locus (QTL), Time course RNA-seq, anthocyanin biosynthesis regulators, linkage analysis mapping