A Chromosome-Level Reference Genome for the Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), a Declining Circumpolar Seabird
Publication Date
8-17-2023
Description
Amidst the current biodiversity crisis, the availability of genomic resources for declining species can provide important insights into the factors driving population decline. In the early 1990s, the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), a pelagic gull widely distributed across the arctic, subarctic, and temperate zones, suffered a steep population decline following an abrupt warming of sea surface temperature across its distribution range and is currently listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Kittiwakes have long been the focus for field studies of physiology, ecology, and ecotoxicology and are primary indicators of fluctuating ecological conditions in arctic and subarctic marine ecosystems. We present a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome and annotation for the black-legged kittiwake using a combination of Pacific Biosciences HiFi sequencing, Bionano optical maps, Hi-C reads, and RNA-Seq data. The final assembly spans 1.35 Gb across 32 chromosomes, with a scaffold N50 of 88.21 Mb and a BUSCO completeness of 97.4%. This genome assembly substantially improves the quality of a previous draft genome, showing an approximately 5× increase in contiguity and a more complete annotation. Using this new chromosome-level reference genome and three more chromosome-level assemblies of Charadriiformes, we uncover several lineage-specific chromosome fusions and fissions, but find no shared rearrangements, suggesting that interchromosomal rearrangements have been commonplace throughout the diversification of Charadriiformes. This new high-quality genome assembly will enable population genomic, transcriptomic, and phenotype–genotype association studies in a widely studied sentinel species, which may provide important insights into the impacts of global change on marine systems.
Journal
Genome Biology and Evolution
Volume
15
Issue
8
First Page
evad153
Department
Biology
Second Department
Biology
Link to Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad153
DOI
10.1093/gbe/evad153
Recommended Citation
Sozzoni, Marcella; Benowitz-Fredericks, Morgan; Field, Kenneth A.; and Rubolini, Diego. "A Chromosome-Level Reference Genome for the Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), a Declining Circumpolar Seabird." (2023) : evad153.