Pteropus medius Genome sequencing and assembly. Pteropus medius

The era of genome sequencing has unlocked many applications since the first human genome release in 2001. The following years have been marked by the development of new sequencing methods of second and then third generation that allowed the release of many new genomes. As much genome as possible are needed for comparative genomics which is essential to the understanding of both mechanisms of evolutionary process and molecular basis of emerging function. Yet, the number of available genomes is far from enough to this end: for Chiroptera, totalizing 1200 species (20% of mammals), there are only 16 genomes available on NCBI. However, bats are very intriguing for scientists as they display many biological innovations. An important challenge is to determine molecular basis of functions that have emerged in bats’ ancestor or within bats phylogeny. To do so, selection pressure analysis, gene family dynamics, activity of repetitive elements and structural re-arrangement need to be investigated. An obvious limitation of the significance and power of detection of comparative genomics is the number of species – with a sequenced genome –. Pteropus species are considered to be the Henipavirus reservoir and play a major role in disease spreading. Those bats, mostly from South-Asia, are reported with the unique ability to safely host Henipaviruses, deadly for other mammals including human. P. giganteus is reported with the highest viral richness for Nipah virus. To uncover molecular basis behind this, genomic data for the Pteropus genus are required for comparative genomics. Here we aims to report the solid scaffold assembly of Pteropus giganteus genome using combinatory of Illumina (DNA + RNA) and Nanopore (DNA) sequencing.