Assembly of female and male hihi genomes (stitchbird; Notiomystis cincta) enables characterization of the W chromosome and resources for conservation genomics.

ABSTRACT: A high-quality reference genome can be a valuable resource for threatened species by providing a foundation to assess their evolutionary potential to adapt to future pressures such as environmental change. We assembled the genome of a female hihi (Notiomysits cincta), a threatened passerine bird endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. The assembled genome is 1.06 Gb, and is of high quality and highly contiguous, with a contig N50 of 7.0 Mb, estimated QV of 44 and a BUSCO completeness of 96.8%. A male assembly of comparable quality was generated in parallel. A population linkage map was used to scaffold the autosomal contigs into chromosomes. Female and male sequence coverage and comparative genomics analyses were used to identify Z-, and W-linked contigs. In total, 94.6% of the assembly length wa

SUBMITTER: Bailey S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12142724 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature