Assembly and annotation of the saguaro cactus genome – SGP5p v2

We present an improved genome assembly of the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea (Engelm.) Britton & Rose), obtained by incorporating long-read PacBio data to the existing short reads. The assembly improves in terms of total size, contiguity, and accuracy, allowing us to extend the range of sequence analyses beyond the single-gene scale. Consequently, 20% more genes were identified, expanding the resources for a neglected yet very peculiar plant family such as Cactaceae.