Turtle power

Green sea turtles are an endangered species that have undergone an estimated 90 percent population decrease over the past half century [1]. To help with the conservation efforts and to inform studies into the unique turtle body plan, we upgrade a draft genome assembly for Chelonia mydas from Wang, Pascual-Anaya, Zadissa & Li et al., 2013. We are grateful to SeaWorld for the sample used for in situ Hi-C preparation!

The chromosome-length genome assembly, shared here, supports previous hypotheses about close relatedness between turtles and the bird-crocodilian lineage, see whole genome alignment to chicken genome assembly CRCg6a below.

Whole genome alignment of the latest chicken genome assembly GRCg6a to the new chromosome-length assembly for the green sea turtle.

Read more about turtles, their unique anatomical features and their development in Wang, Pascual-Anaya, Zadissa & Li et al., 2013!