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Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Tasmanian devils, relative to their size, have the strongest bite of any mammal in the world. They can crush bones easily and even bite through metal. Read more about Tasmanian devils on National Wildlife Federation website.

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Tasmanian devil, photo by Mathias Appel [CC BY-NC 2.0], via flickr.com

Chromosome-length genome assembly

Download the Devil_ref_v7.0_HiC.fasta.gz file containing the chromosome-length (2n=14) assembly of the Tasmanian devil genome. All modifications with respect to the draft (see below) are annotated in the Devil_ref_v7.0_HiC.assembly file. Some basic stats associated with the new reference, Devil_ref_v7.0_HiC, are listed below. The full data release can be explored here.

Contig length (bp)
Number of contigs
Contig N50 (bp)
Longest contig (bp)
2,931,539,702
242,399
19,897
189,860
Scaffold length (bp)
Number of scaffolds
Scaffold N50 (bp)
Longest scaffold (bp)
3,173,169,499
30,825
610,452,639
707,293,299
Draft

The chromosome-length genome assembly is based on the draft assembly Devil_ref_v7.0 (GCA_000189315.1), credited below.

Murchison, E.P., Schulz-Trieglaff, O.B., Ning, Z., Alexandrov, L.B., Bauer, M.J., Fu, B., Hims, M., Ding, Z., Ivakhno, S., Stewart, C., Ng, B.L., Wong, W., Aken, B., White, S., Alsop, A., Becq, J., Bignell, G.R., Cheetham, R.K., Cheng, W., Connor, T.R., Cox, A.J., Feng, Z.-P., Gu, Y., Grocock, R.J., Harris, S.R., Khrebtukova, I., Kingsbury, Z., Kowarsky, M., Kreiss, A., Luo, S., Marshall, J., McBride, D.J., Murray, L., Pearse, A.-M., Raine, K., Rasolonjatovo, I., Shaw, R., Tedder, P., Tregidgo, C., Vilella, A.J., Wedge, D.C., Woods, G.M., Gormley, N., Humphray, S., Schroth, G., Smith, G., Hall, K., Searle, S.M.J., Carter, N.P., Papenfuss, A.T., Futreal, P.A., Campbell, P.J., Yang, F., Bentley, D.R., Evers, D.J., Stratton, M.R., 2012. Genome sequencing and analysis of the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible cancer. Cell 148, 780-791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.11.065.

Method

3D Assembly was performed using 3D-DNA pipeline (Dudchenko et al., Science, 2017). The genome was reviewed using Juicebox Assembly Tools  (Dudchenko et al., bioRxiv, 2018). See Methods for more information.

Hi-C sample

The heart sample for in situ Hi-C preparation was donated by a female individual named Lizzie, and obtained from Bradley R Holland (Ranger Red's Zoo & Conservation Park).

Hi-C Contact maps

Hi-C data was aligned to the draft reference using Juicer (Durand, Shamim et al., Cell Systems, 2016), and contact maps visualizing the alignments with respect to the draft and the new reference were built using 3D-DNA (Dudchenko et al., Science, 2017). The contact maps can be explored below via Juicebox.js interactive tool (Robinson et al., Cell Systems, 2018). (Please note that the interactive figures are scaled 1:2.) To explore the assembly in greater detail, please download the .hic and .assembly files from the data release folder and use Juicebox Assembly Tools  (Dudchenko et al., bioRxiv, 2018).

References

If you use this genome assembly in your research, please check that the conditions of use associated with the draft permit it, and acknowledge the following work.

Murchison, E.P., Schulz-Trieglaff, O.B., Ning, Z., Alexandrov, L.B., Bauer, M.J., Fu, B., Hims, M., Ding, Z., Ivakhno, S., Stewart, C., Ng, B.L., Wong, W., Aken, B., White, S., Alsop, A., Becq, J., Bignell, G.R., Cheetham, R.K., Cheng, W., Connor, T.R., Cox, A.J., Feng, Z.-P., Gu, Y., Grocock, R.J., Harris, S.R., Khrebtukova, I., Kingsbury, Z., Kowarsky, M., Kreiss, A., Luo, S., Marshall, J., McBride, D.J., Murray, L., Pearse, A.-M., Raine, K., Rasolonjatovo, I., Shaw, R., Tedder, P., Tregidgo, C., Vilella, A.J., Wedge, D.C., Woods, G.M., Gormley, N., Humphray, S., Schroth, G., Smith, G., Hall, K., Searle, S.M.J., Carter, N.P., Papenfuss, A.T., Futreal, P.A., Campbell, P.J., Yang, F., Bentley, D.R., Evers, D.J., Stratton, M.R., 2012. Genome sequencing and analysis of the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible cancer. Cell 148, 780-791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.11.065.

Dudchenko, O., Batra, S.S., Omer, A.D., Nyquist, S.K., Hoeger, M., Durand, N.C., Shamim, M.S., Machol, I., Lander, E.S., Aiden, A.P., Aiden, E.L., 2017. De novo assembly of the Aedes aegypti genome using Hi-C yields chromosome-length scaffolds. Science 356, 92–95. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal3327.

Dudchenko, O., Shamim, M.S., Batra, S., Durand, N.C., Musial, N.T., Mostofa, R., Pham, M., Hilaire, B.G.S., Yao, W., Stamenova, E., Hoeger, M., Nyquist, S.K., Korchina, V., Pletch, K., Flanagan, J.P., Tomaszewicz, A., McAloose, D., Estrada, C.P., Novak, B.J., Omer, A.D., Aiden, E.L., 2018. The Juicebox Assembly Tools module facilitates de novo assembly of mammalian genomes with chromosome-length scaffolds for under $1000. bioRxiv 254797. https://doi.org/10.1101/254797.

Disclaimer

This is a work in progress. If you notice any discrepancies in the map or have data that confirms or contradicts the suggested reference, please email us at thednazoo@gmail.com or leave a comment on the Forum.

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