The complete genome sequence of Stevia rebaudiana, the Sweetleaf

The Sweetleaf ( Stevia rebaudiana : Asteraceae) is widely grown for use as a sweetener.  We present the whole genome sequence and annotation of this species.  A total of 146,838,888 paired-end reads consisting of 22.2G bases were obtained by sequencing one leaf from a commercially grown seedling.  The reads were assembled by a de-novo method followed by alignment to related species.   Annotation was performed via GenMark-ES. The raw and assembled data is publicly available via GenBank: Sequence Read Archive ( SRR6792730 ) and Assembly ( GCA_009936405 ).