A reference genome for boat-tailed grackles (Quiscalus major)

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Ornithology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Boat-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus major) are endemic to the eastern US, with studied aspects including mating systems and diet.
• Geographic variation in iris color is noted, but genomic resources are scarce.
• The family Icteridae (New World blackbirds) has limited genomic representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To produce high-quality, haplotype-phased, chromosome-scale genome assemblies for Boat-tailed Grackles.
• To facilitate future genomic research on Quiscalus major and related species.
• To expand the genomic database for the Icteridae family.

Main Methods:

• Combined Pacific Biosciences long-read (HiFi) and Illumina short-read (HiC) data.
• Generated haplotype-phased, chromosome-scale genome assemblies.
• Utilized BUSCO and merqury for quality assessment of gene and k-mer content.

Main Results:

• The bQuiMaj1 assembly consists of two contiguous haplotypes (~1 Gbp total length, ~70 Mbp N50).
• Assembly completeness was high (95-99%) for both gene and k-mer content.
• The genome assembly is chromosome-scale and haplotype-phased.

Conclusions:

• The new genome assemblies significantly enhance understanding of Boat-tailed Grackle biology.
• This resource will aid future studies on Icteridae species.
• High-quality genomic data is now available for Quiscalus major.