Maria-Vittoria Carminati, Vlonjat Lonnie Gashi, Ruiqi Li, Daniel Jacob Klee, Sara Rose Padula, Ajay Manish Patel, Andy Dick Yee Tan, Jacqueline Mattos, Nolan Kane
Author Information
Maria-Vittoria Carminati: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. Maria-Vittoria.Carminati@colorado.edu. ORCID
Vlonjat Lonnie Gashi: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Ruiqi Li: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Daniel Jacob Klee: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. ORCID
Sara Rose Padula: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Ajay Manish Patel: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Andy Dick Yee Tan: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA. ORCID
Jacqueline Mattos: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Nolan Kane: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
The sequencing of a kidney sample (KW2013002) from a stranded Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback whale) calf is the first chromosome-level reference genome for this species. The calf, a 457���cm and 2,500 lbs male, was found stranded in Hawai'i Kai, HI, in 2013 and was marked as abandoned/orphaned. In 2023, 1���g of kidney was sequenced with PacBio long-read DNA sequencing, chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C), RNA sequencing, and mitochondrial sequencing to comprehensively characterize the genome and transcriptome of M. novaeangliae. Data validation includes a synteny analysis, mitochondrial annotation, and a comparison of BUSCO scores (scaffold v. reference genome and Balaenoptera musculus (Blue whale) v. M. novaeangliae). BUSCO analysis was performed on an M. novaeangliae scaffold-level assembly to determine genomic completeness of the reference genome, with a scaffold BUSCO score of 91.2% versus a score of 95.4%. Synteny analysis was performed using the B. musculus genome as comparison to determine chromosome-level coverage and structure. Further, a time-based phylogenetic tree was constructed using the sequenced data and publicly available genomes.
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