College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China.
College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
Sci Data. 2024 Oct 3;11(1):1081. doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03953-2.
The Cape hare (Lepus capensis) is among the most widely distributed hare species globally, inhabiting extensive regions across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. However, evolutionary and genetic research on L. capensis was seriously impeded by the absence of a reference genome. Here, we assembled and constructed a chromosome-level genome of L. capensis (with scaffolds anchored to 25 chromosomes and a total assembled length of 2.9 Gb, achieving a contig N50 length of 124.44 Mb) using PacBio HiFi sequencing and Hi-C assembly technology. Evaluation using BUSCO indicated the genome assembly to be 98.2% complete. The de novo prediction revealed that repetitive sequences constitute 46.13% of the entire genome, and long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) constituted the largest portion. We annotated a total of 13, 868 protein-coding genes using transcriptomes from two tissues (muscle and skin). This high-quality reference genome serves as a valuable genomic resource for advancing genetic studies in this species.
海角兔（Lepus capensis）是分布最广的野兔物种之一，栖息在非洲、中东和中亚的广大地区。然而，由于缺乏参考基因组，对 L. capensis 的进化和遗传研究受到了严重阻碍。在这里，我们使用 PacBio HiFi 测序和 Hi-C 组装技术，组装并构建了 L. capensis 的染色体水平基因组（ scaffolds 锚定在 25 条染色体上，总组装长度为 2.9 Gb，组装 contig N50 长度达到 124.44 Mb）。使用 BUSCO 评估表明基因组组装的完整性达到 98.2%。从头预测表明重复序列构成整个基因组的 46.13%，长散布核元件（LINEs）构成最大部分。我们使用来自两种组织（肌肉和皮肤）的转录组共注释了 13868 个蛋白质编码基因。这个高质量的参考基因组为推进该物种的遗传研究提供了宝贵的基因组资源。
