AUTHOR=Zhou Chaowei , Li Yan , Zhou Yan , Zou Yu , Yuan Dengyue , Deng Xingxing , Lei Luo , Su Jian , Zhu Chengke , Ye Hua , Luo Hui , Lv Guangjun , Zhou Xinghua , Kuang Gangqiao , Zhang Chuang , Wu Jun , Zheng Zonglin , Xiao Shijun , Li Minghui 

TITLE=Chromosome-Scale Assembly and Characterization of the Albino Northern Snakehead, Channa argus var. (Teleostei: Channidae) Genome

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.839225

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.839225

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=<p>Northern snakehead, <italic>Channa argus</italic> (<italic>C. argus</italic>), is an important economic and ecological fish species. The wild population of the species was sharply declined in the last decade. A high-quality reference genome could lay a solid foundation for the genetic and conservation studies for <italic>C. argus</italic>. In this work, we report a chromosomal genome assembly with PacBio and Hi-C technology using the albino northern snakehead, a color variety of <italic>C. argus</italic>. A 644.1-Mb genome with 24 chromosomes was obtained with a contig and scaffold N50 of 11.78 and 27.8 Mb, respectively. We inferred that <italic>C. argus</italic> diverged from <italic>A. testudineus</italic> around 85.6 million years ago. 514 expanded gene families and 214 positively selected genes were identified in the <italic>C. argus</italic> genome. The chromosome-level genome provides a valuable high-quality genomic resource for population, as well as genetic and evolutionary studies for <italic>C. argus</italic> and other species in Channidae.</p>