Gasterosteus aculeatus Genome sequencing

The threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) can live in multiple aquatic environments, such as marine, freshwater and brackish water. Threespine stickleback in marine environments and have characteristic phenotypes including bony armor plates and pelvic spines. These marine populations have repeatedly colonized freshwater environments along the coast of North America, along with Europe and Asia. Freshwater threespine stickleback have typically reduced armor plates and have lost their pelvic spines.While multiple high quality reference genomes exist for freshwater threespine stickleback populations in the eastern pacific, de novo assembled, high quality genomes are not well represented for the marine populations in this area. Here we provide a marine genome from that area, specifically in the region of the Cook Inlet. We intend for this marine reference genome is a tool for researchers performing comparative genomic studies of trait adaptation and evolution.