Chromosome-scale, haplotype-resolved genome of Bighead catfish for conservation and aquaculture

The first haplotype-resolved chromosome-scale genome assembly for the bighead catfish (Clarias macrocephalus), a freshwater species native to Thailand and Vietnam, which has importance in aquaculture and conservation, is presented here. The 880 Mb genome was assembled using high-fidelity long-read sequencing from Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which was scaffolded using high-throughput chromosome conformation capture data, and polished with Illumina short-read sequencing. The assembly, which spans 27 pseudo-chromosomes, demonstrates high completeness and continuity, with a scaffold N50 of 33.48 Mb, 95.5% completeness based on Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO), and a quality value (QV) of 50. This genomic resource provides a foundation for studying aquaculture traits, genetic diversity, and structural variation of the bighead catfish and supports efforts in their selective breeding, conservation, and sustainable aquaculture in Southeast Asia.