Chromosomal-Level Assembly of Antarctic Scaly Rockcod, Trematomus loennbergii Genome Using Long-Read Sequencing and Chromosome Conformation Capture (Hi-C) Technologies

• Published in: Diversity
• Main Authors: Euna Jo, Seung Jae Lee, Jeong-Hoon Kim, Steven J. Parker, Eunkyung Choi, Jinmu Kim, So-Ra Han, Tae-Jin Oh, Hyun Park
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: Antarctic fish; notothenioids; long-read sequencing; Hi-C; chromosomal-level assembly; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Antarctic; Pacific; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/d13120668; https://doaj.org/article/154d2800086444628f738359d762ea6e

Trematomus species (suborder Notothenioidei; family Nototheniidae) are widely distributed in the southern oceans near Antarctica. There are 11 recognized species in the genus Trematomus, and notothenioids are known to have high chromosomal diversity (2n = 24–58) because of relatively recent and rapid adaptive radiation. Herein, we report the chromosomal-level genome assembly of T. loennbergii, the first characterized genome representative of the genus Trematomus. The final genome assembly of T. loennbergii was obtained using a Pacific Biosciences long-read sequencing platform and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture technology. Twenty-three chromosomal-level scaffolds were assembled to 940 Mb in total size, with a longest contig size of 48.5 Mb and contig N50 length of 24.7 Mb. The genome contained 42.03% repeat sequences, and a total of 24,525 protein-coding genes were annotated. We produced a high-quality genome assembly of T. loennbergii. Our results provide a first reference genome for the genus Trematomus and will serve as a basis for studying the molecular taxonomy and evolution of Antarctic fish.