Chromosome-level genome assembly of the cashmere goat

• Published in: Scientific data Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1107 - 10
• Main Authors: Wang, Zhiying, Lv, Qi, Li, Wenze, Huang, Wanlong, Gong, Gao, Yan, Xiaochun, Liu, Baichuan, Chen, Oljibilig, Wang, Na, Zhang, Yanjun, Wang, Ruijun, Li, Jinquan, Tian, Shilin, Su, Rui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09-10-2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/208/1348; 631/208/726; Agricultural production; Animals; Data Descriptor; Domestic animals; Genome; Genomes; Goats - genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Quality control; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sex chromosomes; Somatic chromosomes
• ISSN: 2052-4463; 2052-4463
• DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03932-7

The goat, an early domesticated ruminant, is a reliable source of cashmere, meat and milk in global agricultural production. Despite this, the genome of cashmere-rich goats has yet to be characterized. Here, we assembled the nearly complete genome of a cashmere goat from a highly economically valuable Inner Mongolian Cashmere buck, utilizing a combination of PacBio HiFi, ONT ultra-long reads, and Hi-C technologies. The size of this genome is 2.76 Gb, with a contig N50 of 95.22 Mb. All assembled sequences were anchored onto 29 autosomes and both sex chromosomes, with only two gaps present on the X chromosome. We identified 1,333.29 Mb (48.26%) of repetitive sequences and predicted 22,480 protein-coding genes. Assembly quality assessment of the genome demonstrated that our assembled cashmere goat genome surpasses the continuity, completeness, and accuracy of other published goat genomes. Taken together, we provided the first cashmere goat assembly, bridging the gap in the genome of important economic breeds of domestic goats, and providing a valuable reference resource for goat genetics and genome research.