Supporting data for "A high-quality assembly reveals genomic characteristics, phylogenetic status and causal genes for leucism plumage of Indian peafowl"

The dazzling phenotypic characteristics of male Indian peafowl (<i>Pavo cristatus</i>) are attractive to both the female of the species and to humans. However, little is known about the evolution of the phenotypic and phylogeny of these birds at the whole-genome level. So far, there are no reports regarding the genetic mechanism of the formation of leucism plumage in this variant of Indian peafowl. <br>A draft genome of Indian peafowl was assembled, with a genome size of 1.05 Gb (the sequencing depth is 362x), and contig and scaffold N50 were up to 6.2 Mb and 11.4 Mb, respectively. Compared with other birds, Indian peafowl showed changes in terms of metabolism, immunity, skeletal development and feather development, which provided a novel insight into the phenotypic evolution of peafowl, such as the large body size and feather morphologies. Moreover, we determined that the phylogeny of Indian peafowl was more closely linked to turkey than chicken. Specifically, we first identified that <i>PMEL</i> was a potential causal gene leading to the formation of the leucism plumage variant in Indian peafowl.<br>This study provides an Indian peafowl genome of high-quality as well as a novel understanding of phenotypic evolution and phylogeny of Indian peafowl. These results provide a valuable reference for the study of avian genome evolution.