Date for: The chromosome-scale genome assembly of the yellowtail clownfish Amphiprion clarkii provides insights into melanic pigmentation of anemonefish

Anemonefish are an emerging group of model organisms due to interesting
biological traits such as sequential hermaphroditism, social control of
size, symbiosis with anemones, and varying pigmentation patterns. In
addition to genus-specific traits, the anemonefish Amphiprion clarkii
possesses species-specific characteristics such as interspecies
co-habitation, high intraspecies color variation, no anemone specificity,
and a broad distribution, that have the potential to further our
understanding of anemonefish evolutionary history, behavioral strategies,
fish-anemone symbiosis, and color pattern evolution. However, despite its
position as an emerging model species, the genome of A. clarkii is yet to
be published. Here, using PacBio long-read, Illumina short-read and Hi-C
chromatin capture technology we generated a high-quality chromosome-scale
genome for the anemonefish A. clarkii. The initial assembly consisted of
1840 contigs with an N50 of 1,203,211 bp. These contigs were successfully
anchored into 24 chromosomes of 843,582,782 bp and then annotated with
25,050 protein-coding gene models. With the chromosome-scale assembly
encompassing 98.7% of conserved actinopterygian genes and the annotation
containing 97.0%, the quality and completeness of this A. clarkii genome
is the highest amongst all published anemonefish genomes. The publication
of this high-quality genome, along with A. clarkii’s many unique traits,
position this species as an ideal model organism for addressing scientific
questions across a range of disciplines.