A chromosome-level genome assembly for the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta).

Squires TE, Rödin-Mörch P, Formenti G, Tracey A, Abueg L, Brajuka N, Jarvis E, Halapi EC, Melsted P, Höglund J, Magnússon KP

G3 (Bethesda) 13 (7) - [2023-07-05; online 2023-05-04]

The Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) is a cold-adapted, largely sedentary, game bird with a Holarctic distribution. The species represents an important example of an organism likely to be affected by ongoing climatic shifts across a disparate range. We provide here a high-quality reference genome and mitogenome for the Rock Ptarmigan assembled from PacBio HiFi and Hi-C sequencing of a female bird from Iceland. The total size of the genome is 1.03 Gb with a scaffold N50 of 71.23 Mb and a contig N50 of 17.91 Mb. The final scaffolds represent all 40 predicted chromosomes, and the mitochondria with a BUSCO score of 98.6%. Gene annotation resulted in 16,078 protein-coding genes out of a total 19,831 predicted (81.08% excluding pseudogenes). The genome included 21.07% repeat sequences, and the average length of genes, exons, and introns were 33605, 394, and 4265 bp, respectively. The availability of a new reference-quality genome will contribute to understanding the Rock Ptarmigan's unique evolutionary history, vulnerability to climate change, and demographic trajectories around the globe while serving as a benchmark for species in the family Phasianidae (order Galliformes).

Bioinformatics Support for Computational Resources [Service]

PubMed 37141262

DOI 10.1093/g3journal/jkad099

Crossref 10.1093/g3journal/jkad099

pmc: PMC10320755
pii: 7152384


Publications 9.5.0