The Genome of the Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)
by
Steven J. M. Jones 1,2,3,*
,
Gregory A. Taylor 1,
Simon Chan 1,
René L. Warren 1,
S. Austin Hammond 1,
Steven Bilobram 1,
Gideon Mordecai 4,5,
Curtis A. Suttle 4,5,6,7,
Kristina M. Miller 8,
Angela Schulze 8,
Amy M. Chan 4,5,
Samantha J. Jones 1,3,
Kane Tse 1,
Irene Li 1,
Dorothy Cheung 1,
Karen L. Mungall 1,
Caleb Choo 1,
Adrian Ally 1,
Noreen Dhalla 1,
Angela K. Y. Tam 1,
Armelle Troussard 1,
Heather Kirk 1,
Pawan Pandoh 1,
Daniel Paulino 1,
Robin J. N. Coope 1,
Andrew J. Mungall 1,
Richard Moore 1,
Yongjun Zhao 1,
Inanc Birol 1,3,
Yussanne Ma 1,
Marco Marra 1,3 and
Martin Haulena 9
Steven J. M. Jones 1,2,3,*,
Gregory A. Taylor 1,
Simon Chan 1,
René L. Warren 1,
S. Austin Hammond 1,
Steven Bilobram 1,
Gideon Mordecai 4,5,
Curtis A. Suttle 4,5,6,7,
Kristina M. Miller 8,
Angela Schulze 8,
Amy M. Chan 4,5,
Samantha J. Jones 1,3,
Kane Tse 1,
Irene Li 1,
Dorothy Cheung 1,
Karen L. Mungall 1,
Caleb Choo 1,
Adrian Ally 1,
Noreen Dhalla 1,
Angela K. Y. Tam 1,
Armelle Troussard 1,
Heather Kirk 1,
Pawan Pandoh 1,
Daniel Paulino 1,
Robin J. N. Coope 1,
Andrew J. Mungall 1,
Richard Moore 1,
Yongjun Zhao 1,
Inanc Birol 1,3,
Yussanne Ma 1,
Marco Marra 1,3 and
Martin Haulena 9
1
Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada
2
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
3
Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
4
Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
5
Institute for the Oceans & Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
6
Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
7
Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
8
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Molecular Genetics Section, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5K6, Canada
9
Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver, BC V6G 3E2, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Genes 2017, 8(12), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes8120378
Received: 12 September 2017 / Revised: 28 November 2017 / Accepted: 1 December 2017 / Published: 11 December 2017
(This article belongs to the Section Technologies and Resources for Genetics)
The beluga whale is a cetacean that inhabits arctic and subarctic regions, and is the only living member of the genus Delphinapterus. The genome of the beluga whale was determined using DNA sequencing approaches that employed both microfluidic partitioning library and non-partitioned library construction. The former allowed for the construction of a highly contiguous assembly with a scaffold N50 length of over 19 Mbp and total reconstruction of 2.32 Gbp. To aid our understanding of the functional elements, transcriptome data was also derived from brain, duodenum, heart, lung, spleen, and liver tissue. Assembled sequence and all of the underlying sequence data are available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the Bioproject accession number PRJNA360851A.
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Keywords:
genome; genome assembly; beluga whale; Delphinapterus leucas; Cetacea
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MDPI and ACS Style
Jones, S.J.M.; Taylor, G.A.; Chan, S.; Warren, R.L.; Hammond, S.A.; Bilobram, S.; Mordecai, G.; Suttle, C.A.; Miller, K.M.; Schulze, A.; Chan, A.M.; Jones, S.J.; Tse, K.; Li, I.; Cheung, D.; Mungall, K.L.; Choo, C.; Ally, A.; Dhalla, N.; Tam, A.K.Y.; Troussard, A.; Kirk, H.; Pandoh, P.; Paulino, D.; Coope, R.J.N.; Mungall, A.J.; Moore, R.; Zhao, Y.; Birol, I.; Ma, Y.; Marra, M.; Haulena, M. The Genome of the Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas). Genes 2017, 8, 378.
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