In aviculture, lovebirds are considered one of the most popular birds to keep. This African parakeet is known for its range of plumage colors and ease to tame. Plumage variation is the most important price-determining trait of these birds, and also the main selection criterion for breeders. Currently, no genetic screening tests for traits of economic importance or to confirm pedigree data are available for any of the nine lovebird species. As a starting point to develop these tests, the de novo genome of Agapornis roseicollis (rosy-faced lovebird) was sequenced, assembled, and annotated. Sequencing was done on the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform and the assembly was performed using SOAPdenovo v2.04. The genome was found to be 1.1 Gb in size and 16,044 genes were identified and annotated. This compared well with other previously sequenced avian genomes, such as the chicken, zebra finch, and budgerigar. To assess genome completeness, the number of benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs were identified in the genome. This was compared to other previously assembled avian genomes and the results indicated that the genome will be useful in the development of genetic screening tests to aid lovebird breeders in selecting breeding pairs.
Keywords: Avian genomics; bioinformatics; whole genome sequencing.