Gymnobelideus leadbeateri isolate:B50252 Genome sequencing and assembly

The Leadbeater's possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) LBP is a critically endangered marsupial, largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. A small unique lowland swamp population exists in Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, comprising only 34 adult individuals in 2019. It is the State's only endemic mammal, and is its mammalian emblem species. Drastic reductions in population size following progressive habitat loss compounded by bushfires has resulted in this species being listed as Critically Endangered.The lowland Yellingbo population has low genetic diversity having declined from ~ 112 individuals in 2003 to 34 individuals in 2018, following deteriorating habitat condition.Consistent with its outlying geographic location in distinct habitat, the Yellingbo population is genetically differentiated from the higher elevation populations in the Central Highlands, and Yellingbo is ~16 km from the nearest Central Highlands population, with most suitable habitat between Yellingbo and the Highlands cleared for agriculture early last century. Dispersal distances are typically <1.5 km, so the probability of contemporary gene flow between lowland and highland populations is negligible.Genetic isolation, small population size and low genetic diversity within Yellingbo make it likely that genetic factors have contributed to the recent severe population decline. Accordingly, it has been recommended on the basis of a structured risk analysis (Frankham et al. 2017; Ralls et al. 2018) that gene pool mixing be tested as an approach to save the remaining Lowland LBP gene pool.To understand how inbreeding eroded functional genetic diversity in lowland LBP population, and how admixture between lowland and highland LBP individuals can influence phenotypes of lowland possums, a reference genome for lowland population is required. Here, we sequence and assemble a genome of Leadbeater's possum.