Supporting data for "Chromosome-level genome assembly of the female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)"

The western mosquitofish (<i>Gambusia affinis</i>) is a sexual dimorphism poeciliid fish known for its worldwide biological invasion and is an important research model for studying invasion biology. This organism may also be used as a suitable model to explore sex chromosome evolution and reproductive development in terms of differentiation of ZW sex chromosomes, ovoviviparity, and specialization of reproductive organs. However, there is a lack of high-quality genomic data for the female <i>G. affinis</i>; hence, this study aimed to generate a chromosome-level genome assembly of the female <i>G. affinis</i>.<br>The chromosome-level genome assembly was constructed using Oxford nanopore sequencing, BioNano, and Hi-C technology. A <i>G. affinis</i> genome containing 217 contigs with an N50 length of 12.9 Mb and 125 scaffolds with an N50 length of 26.5 Mb was obtained by Oxford nanopore and BioNano, respectively, and the 113 scaffolds (90.4% of scaffolds containing 97.9% nucleotide bases) were assembled into 24 chromosomes by Hi-C. The Z and W chromosomes of <i>G. affinis</i> were identified by comparative genomic analysis of female and male <i>G. affinis</i>, and the mechanism of differentiation of the Z and W chromosomes was explored. Combined with transcriptome data from six tissues, a total of 23,997 protein-coding genes were predicted and 23,737 (98.9%) genes were functionally annotated.<br>The high-quality female <i>G. affinis</i> genome obtained in this study provides a valuable omics resource for future studies of comparative genomics and functional genomics to explore the evolution of Z and W chromosomes and the reproductive developmental biology of <i>G. affinis</i>.