Chromosome-level genome assembly of the small yellow croaker, Larimichthys polyactis (Perciformes: Sciaenidae)

Small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) represents an important commercial fish species in China. A high-quality genome is essential for evaluating the fine-scale genetic structure, which has significant implications for the conservation of wild stocks, fishery management, and the utilization of germplasm in L. polyactis. This study presents a chromosome-level genome of L. polyactis generated by employing the PacBio high-fidelity (HiFi) and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technologies. The complete genome spans 677.35 Mb with a scaffold N50 size of 28.51 Mb. A substantial portion of the genome, totaling 663.13 Mb (97.90%), was anchored to 24 chromosomes. Based on Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) analysis, L. polyactis exhibits high genomic completeness (98.00%). A total of 28,640 annotated genes were identified, with 25,801 being functionally annotated. The comparisons of 24 chromosomes between L. polyactis and L. crocea proved high conservation of synteny between this pair of relatives. These findings provide valuable resources for the conservation, functional genomics, molecular breeding and evolutionary studies of L. polyactis.