Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA.
School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, CA 95343, USA.
J Hered. 2022 Nov 30;113(6):649-656. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esac032.
Keystone species are known to play a critical role in kelp forest health, including the well-known killer whales, sea otter, sea urchin, kelp trophic cascade in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. In California, a major player in the regulation of sea urchin abundance, and in turn, the health of kelp forests ecosystems, is a large wrasse, the California Sheephead, Semicossyphus pulcher. We present a reference genome for this ecologically important species that will serve as a key resource for future conservation research of California's inshore marine environment utilizing genomic tools to address changes in life-history traits, dispersal, range shifts, and ecological interactions among members of the kelp forest ecological assemblages. Our genome assembly of S. pulcher has a total length of 0.794 Gb, which is similar to many other marine fishes. The assembly is largely contiguous (N50 = 31.9 Mb) and nearly complete (BUSCO single-copy core gene content = 98.1%). Within the context of the California Conservation Genomics Project (CCGP), the genome of S. pulcher will be used as an important reference resource for ongoing whole genome resequencing efforts of the species.
关键种被认为在海藻林健康中起着至关重要的作用，包括著名的虎鲸、海獭、海胆、阿拉斯加阿留申群岛的海藻营养级联。在美国加利福尼亚州，调控海胆丰度的主要因素之一是一种大型隆头鱼，即加利福尼亚羊头鱼，Semicossyphus pulcher。我们为这个具有重要生态意义的物种提供了一个参考基因组，这将成为未来加利福尼亚近海海洋环境保护研究的关键资源，利用基因组工具来解决生活史特征、扩散、分布范围变化以及海藻林生态组合成员之间的生态相互作用的变化。我们构建的 S. pulcher 基因组全长 0.794Gb，与许多其他海洋鱼类相似。该基因组组装的连续性较好（N50 = 31.9Mb），近乎完整（单个拷贝核心基因含量为 98.1%）。在加利福尼亚保护基因组学计划（CCGP）的背景下，S. pulcher 的基因组将作为该物种正在进行的全基因组重测序工作的重要参考资源。
