merops_annotations.txt

Marsupials exhibit highly specialized patterns of reproduction and development, making them uniquely valuable for comparative genomics studies with their sister lineage, eutherian (also known as placental) mammals. However, marsupial genomic resources still lag far behind those of eutherian mammals, limiting our insight into mammalian diversity. Here, we present a series of novel genomic resources for the fat-tailed dunnart (<em>Sminthopsis crassicaudata</em>), a mouse-like marsupial that, due to its ease of husbandry and <em>ex-utero</em> development, is emerging as a laboratory model. To enable wider use, we have generated a multi-tissue <em>de novo</em> transcriptome assembly of dunnart RNA-seq reads spanning 15 tissues. This highly representative transcriptome is comprised of 2,093,982 assembled transcripts, with a mean transcript length of 830 bp. The transcriptome mammalian BUSCO completeness score of 93% is the highest amongst all other published marsupial transcriptomes. Additionally, we report an improved fat-tailed dunnart genome assembly which is 3.23 Gb long, organized into 1,848 scaffolds, with a scaffold N50 of 72.64 Mb. The genome annotation, supported by assembled transcripts and <em>ab initio</em> predictions, revealed 21,622 protein-coding genes. Altogether, these resources will contribute greatly towards characterizing marsupial biology and mammalian genome evolution.

有袋类动物展现出高度特化的繁殖与发育模式，使其在与姐妹类群真兽类（又称胎盘类，eutherian）哺乳动物的比较基因组学研究中具有独特价值。然而，有袋类基因组资源仍显著落后于真兽类哺乳动物，限制了我们对哺乳动物多样性的深入理解。在此，我们为肥尾袋鼬（<em>Sminthopsis crassicaudata</em>）——一种类似小鼠的有袋类动物，因其易于饲养及子宫外（<em>ex-utero</em>）发育特性而逐渐成为实验室模式生物——提供了一系列全新的基因组资源。为促进其更广泛应用，我们针对该物种生成了覆盖15种组织的多组织从头转录组组装。该转录组具有高度代表性，包含2,093,982条组装转录本，平均长度为830 bp，其BUSCO哺乳动物完整性评分为93%，在已发表的所有有袋类转录组中位列第一。此外，我们还报道了一个改良的肥尾袋鼬基因组组装版本，其长度为3.23 Gb，由1,848个scaffold组成，scaffold N50值达72.64 Mb。结合组装转录本与从头（<em>ab initio</em>）预测结果的基因组注释揭示了21,622个蛋白编码基因。综上，这些资源将极大助力于有袋类生物学特征解析及哺乳动物基因组演化研究。