Chromosome-Level genome assembly and transcriptome analysis of the ural owl, Strix uralensis Pallas, 1771

The Ural owl (Strix uralensis) is a large member of the Strigidae family
and inhabits Eurasian forests ranging from Germany to Japan. However, it
faces increased range reduction, particularly at its southwestern
distribution edges. Despite being considered ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN,
local populations have become threatened in Central Europe due to severe
habitat loss. Reintroduction programs aim to restore these populations by
closing distribution gaps and facilitating natural recolonization of
suitable habitats. To support these efforts, genomic resources have become
an established tool to assess genetic diversity, geographic structure, and
potential inbreeding, crucial for maintaining the genetic health and
adaptability of newly established populations. Here, we present a de novo
genome assembly and transcriptome of the Ural owl based on ONT long-reads,
Omni-C Illumina short-reads, and RNASeq data. The final assembly has a
total length of 1.26 Gb, of which 96.42% is anchored into the 42 largest
scaffolds. The scaffold and contig N50 values of 88.65 Mb and 21.74 Mb,
respectively, a BUSCO/compleasm completeness of 97.5%/99.65% and k-mer
completeness of 95.18%, emphasize the high quality of this assembly.
Furthermore, annotation of the assembly identified 17,650 genes and a
repeat content of 12.48%. This new highly contiguous and chromosome-level
assembly will greatly benefit Ural owl conservation management by
informing reintroduction programs about the species’ genetic health and
contributing a valuable resource to study genetic function in greater
detail across the whole Strigidae family.