The Genome of the Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)

Steven J M Jones; Gregory A Taylor; Simon Chan; René L Warren; S Austin Hammond; Steven Bilobram; Gideon Mordecai; Curtis A Suttle; Kristina M Miller; Angela Schulze; Amy M Chan; Samantha J Jones; Kane Tse; Irene Li; Dorothy Cheung; Karen L Mungall; Caleb Choo; Adrian Ally; Noreen Dhalla; Angela K Y Tam; Armelle Troussard; Heather Kirk; Pawan Pandoh; Daniel Paulino; Robin J N Coope; Andrew J Mungall; Richard Moore; Yongjun Zhao; Inanc Birol; Yussanne Ma; Marco Marra; Martin Haulena

doi:10.3390/genes8120378

The Genome of the Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)

Genes (Basel). 2017 Dec 11;8(12):378. doi: 10.3390/genes8120378.

Authors

Steven J M Jones^{1

2

3}, Gregory A Taylor⁴, Simon Chan⁵, René L Warren⁶, S Austin Hammond⁷, Steven Bilobram⁸, Gideon Mordecai^{9

10}, Curtis A Suttle^{11

12

13

14}, Kristina M Miller¹⁵, Angela Schulze¹⁶, Amy M Chan^{17

18}, Samantha J Jones^{19

20}, Kane Tse²¹, Irene Li²², Dorothy Cheung²³, Karen L Mungall²⁴, Caleb Choo²⁵, Adrian Ally²⁶, Noreen Dhalla²⁷, Angela K Y Tam²⁸, Armelle Troussard²⁹, Heather Kirk³⁰, Pawan Pandoh³¹, Daniel Paulino³², Robin J N Coope³³, Andrew J Mungall³⁴, Richard Moore³⁵, Yongjun Zhao³⁶, Inanc Birol^{37

38}, Yussanne Ma³⁹, Marco Marra^{40

41}, Martin Haulena⁴²

Affiliations

¹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
² Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada. [email protected].
³ Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. [email protected].
⁴ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁵ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁶ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁷ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁸ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁹ Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁰ Institute for the Oceans & Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹¹ Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹² Institute for the Oceans & Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹³ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁴ Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁵ Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Molecular Genetics Section, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5K6, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁶ Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Molecular Genetics Section, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5K6, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁷ Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁸ Institute for the Oceans & Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. [email protected].
¹⁹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁰ Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. [email protected].
²¹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²² Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²³ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁴ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁵ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁶ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁷ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁸ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
²⁹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁰ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³¹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³² Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³³ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁴ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁵ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁶ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁷ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
³⁸ Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. [email protected].
³⁹ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁴⁰ Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6, Canada. [email protected].
⁴¹ Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada. [email protected].
⁴² Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver, BC V6G 3E2, Canada. [email protected].

Abstract

The beluga whale is a cetacean that inhabits arctic and subarctic regions, and is the only living member of the genus Delphinapterus. The genome of the beluga whale was determined using DNA sequencing approaches that employed both microfluidic partitioning library and non-partitioned library construction. The former allowed for the construction of a highly contiguous assembly with a scaffold N50 length of over 19 Mbp and total reconstruction of 2.32 Gbp. To aid our understanding of the functional elements, transcriptome data was also derived from brain, duodenum, heart, lung, spleen, and liver tissue. Assembled sequence and all of the underlying sequence data are available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the Bioproject accession number PRJNA360851A.

Keywords: Cetacea; Delphinapterus leucas; beluga whale; genome; genome assembly.