Phred M Benham, Carla Cicero, Devon A DeRaad, John E McCormack, Robert K Wayne, Merly Escalona, Eric Beraut, Mohan P A Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Michael W Nachman, Rauri C K Bowie

A highly contiguous reference genome for the Steller’s jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

  • Genetics (clinical)
  • Genetics
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biotechnology
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Abstract The Steller’s jay is a familiar bird of western forests from Alaska south to Nicaragua. Here, we report a draft reference assembly for the species generated from PacBio HiFi long-read and Omni-C chromatin-proximity sequencing data as part of the California Conservation Genomics Project (CCGP). Sequenced reads were assembled into 352 scaffolds totaling 1.16 Gb in length. Assembly metrics indicate a highly contiguous and complete assembly with a contig N50 of 7.8 Mb, scaffold N50 of 25.8 Mb, and BUSCO completeness score of 97.2%. Repetitive elements span 16.6% of the genome including nearly 90% of the W chromosome. Compared with high-quality assemblies from other members of the family Corvidae, the Steller’s jay genome contains a larger proportion of repetitive elements than 4 crow species (Corvus), but a lower proportion of repetitive elements than the California scrub-jay (Aphelocoma californica). This reference genome will serve as an essential resource for future studies on speciation, local adaptation, phylogeography, and conservation genetics in this species of significant biological interest.

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