Chromosome-level genome assembly of a Chinese evergreen sweetgum (Liquidambar gracilipes, Altingiaceae)

Liquidambar gracilipes, an evergreen species endemic to China and a member of the Altingiaceae family, is morphologically distinguished by its unlobed leaves and represents an ecologically and economically valuable resource. Prized for its ornamentalbeauty, valuable timber, and medicinal properties, this species is a key component of subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in East China. To improve our understanding of its evolutionary and functional genomics, we performed a de novo genome assembly of L. gracilipes by integrating PacBio HiFi long reads, Illumina short reads, and Hi-C data. A high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly was obtained with a genome size of approximately 716.96 Mb and contig N50 of 18.61 Mb, of which 96.67% was anchored to 16 pseudo-chromosomes with a scaffold N50 of 42.40 Mb.