The near telomere-to-telomere genome of the Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii)

Maccullochella peelii, commonly known as Murray cod, is an endemic economic fish from the Australian freshwater systems. In order to provide high-quality reference genome for its genomic studies, we assemble and annotate the first near telomere-to-telomere genome of this species which spans 762.84 Mb with a contig N50 of 31.21 Mb, 99.02% sequences were positioned to 24 chromosomes by Hi-C assembly. After gap filling using ONT ultra-long reads, yielding 22 gapless chromosomes. Based on homologous predictions and RNA-sequencing, 27,380 protein-coding genes were identified, and the functions were predicted for 24,998 (91.3%) of them. Moreover, assembled genome was evaluated as 99.3% single-copy BUSCOs completeness. This work could provide a foundation and high-quality genomic resources for the future research on molecular breeding and population genetics of this species.