Zalophus californianus Raw sequence reads. Zalophus californianus

The goal of our study is to characterize the MHC class I genes in two California sea lions using Pacific Biosciences single molecule real-time (SMRT) circular consensus sequencing (CCS) as an alternative to traditional Sanger-based sequencing techniques in light of a rise in the prevalence of an aggressive urogenital carcinoma associated with a gamma herpesvirus in the species. The technique can be applied to other non-model wildlife species with conservation and disease implications.