_Cichlid_PacBio_assembly__PacBio_improvement_of_A__calliptera_cichlid_genome_assembly. _Cichlid_PacBio_assembly__PacBio_improvement_of_A__calliptera_cichlid_genome_assembly

Genome assembly in vertebrates is still very difficult, mainly due to the typically large repeat content. Consequently, genome assemblies based purely on Illumina short reads tend to be highly fragmented and/or contain large gaps. Recently, PacBio long reads have been used successfully by a number of genome projects to span across the repetitive regions and provide highly contiguous assemblies. Milan Malinsky has generated three Illumina assemblies of cichlid genomes, using a trio assembly approach he developed during his PhD with Richard Durbin. Here we are proposing to obtain long PacBio reads to: a) greatly improve one of the cichlid assemblies (A. calliptera) for use in ongoing population genomics research; b) build up informatics expertise in the rapidly expanding field of PacBio genome assembly. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/