The blackchin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron) is a euryhaline teleost, renowned for its exceptional osmoregulatory ability to thrive across a wide salinity range. However, studies on the genome of Sarotherodon melanotheron are limited, impeding the investigative work on genetic selection at the molecular level. With the sequencing technologies, we present a near complete telomere-to-telomere level genome assembly for Sarotherodon melanotheron, which spans 996.95 Mb with a scaffold N50 of 42.04 Mb and is anchored to 22 chromosomes. This genome assembly was generated by integrating multiple sequencing technologies, including short reads, PacBio HiFi long reads, ONT ultra-long reads, and Hi-C data. The genome assembly demonstrated a high degree of completeness, with 98.36% complete BUSCOs were successfully identified. A total of 391.75 Mb repeating elements and 29,328 protein-coding genes were detected through genome assembly. Functional annotation was successfully completed for 92.10% of the 29,328 protein-coding genes, with a BUSCO score of 99.22%. This genome assembly of Sarotherodon melanotheron not only provides critical insights into its biological traits and genetic diversity but also paves the way for future genetic improvement.
Zhong et al. (Fri,) studied this question.