Supporting data for "Genomic data for 78 chickens from 14 populations"

Since the domestication of the red jungle fowls (Gallus gallus) (dating back to ~10,000 B.P.) in Asia, domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) have been subjected to the combined effects of natural selection and human-driven artificial selection; this has resulted in marked phenotypic diversity in a number of traits, including behavior, body composition, egg production and skin color. Population genomic variations through diversifying selection have not been fully investigated.<br> The whole genomes of 78 domestic chickens were sequenced to an average of 18-fold coverage for each bird. By combining this data with publicly available genomes of 5 wild red jungle fowls and 8 Xishuangbanna game fowls, we conducted a comprehensive comparative genomics analysis of 91 chickens from 17 populations. After aligning ~21.30 gigabases (Gb) of high quality data from each individual to the reference chicken genome, we identified ~6.44 million (M) SNPs for each population. These SNPs included 1.10 M novel SNPs in 17 populations that were absent in the current chicken dbSNP (Build 145) entries.<br> The current data is important for population genetics and further studies in chicken, and will serve as a valuable resource for investigating diversifying selection and candidate genes for selective breeding in chicken.