The Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) is an important native species in Australian river ecosystems and an emerging species in aquaculture. To advance genomic studies in this species, we generated a chromosome-level genome assembly by integrating PacBio HiFi reads and Hi-C sequencing data. The final assembly spans 779.23 Mb, with 750.57 Mb (96.32%) of sequences anchored into 24 pseudochromosomes. The assembly demonstrates high continuity, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 21.77 Mb and 32.20 Mb, respectively. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) assessment showed a completeness of 99.5%. A total of 23,614 protein-coding genes were predicted, with 22,912 (97.06%) of them functionally annotated. This genome assembly provides a fundamental resource for research on adaptive evolution, population genetics, and genomic-assisted breeding of M. peelii.
Chu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.