Genome report: chromosome-level draft assemblies of the snow leopard, African leopard, and tiger (Panthera uncia, Panthera pardus pardus, and Panthera tigris)

Ellie E Armstrong; Michael G Campana; Katherine A Solari; Simon R Morgan; Oliver A Ryder; Vincent N Naude; Gustaf Samelius; Koustubh Sharma; Elizabeth A Hadly; Dmitri A Petrov

doi:10.1093/g3journal/jkac277

Genome report: chromosome-level draft assemblies of the snow leopard, African leopard, and tiger (Panthera uncia, Panthera pardus pardus, and Panthera tigris)

G3 (Bethesda). 2022 Dec 1;12(12):jkac277. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac277.

Authors

Ellie E Armstrong^{1

2}, Michael G Campana³, Katherine A Solari¹, Simon R Morgan^{1

4}, Oliver A Ryder⁵, Vincent N Naude^{6

7}, Gustaf Samelius⁸, Koustubh Sharma^{8

9}, Elizabeth A Hadly¹, Dmitri A Petrov¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
² Department of Biology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
³ Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC 20008, USA.
⁴ Wildlife ACT Fund Trust, Cape Town 8001, South Africa.
⁵ San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Beckman Center for Conservation Research, San Diego, CA 92027, USA.
⁶ Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa.
⁷ School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa.
⁸ Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, WA 98103, USA.
⁹ Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore 570 017, India.

Abstract

The big cats (genus Panthera) represent some of the most popular and charismatic species on the planet. Although some reference genomes are available for this clade, few are at the chromosome level, inhibiting high-resolution genomic studies. We assembled genomes from 3 members of the genus, the tiger (Panthera tigris), the snow leopard (Panthera uncia), and the African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), at chromosome or near-chromosome level. We used a combination of short- and long-read technologies, as well as proximity ligation data from Hi-C technology, to achieve high continuity and contiguity for each individual. We hope that these genomes will aid in further evolutionary and conservation research of this iconic group of mammals.

Keywords: Panthera pardus pardus; Panthera tigris; Panthera uncia; big cats; genome assembly.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Chromosomes / genetics
Genome
Panthera* / genetics
Tigers* / genetics

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding