The genome sequence of the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog ( Taudactylus pleione)

Katherine A Farquharson; Elspeth A McLennan; Katherine Belov; Carolyn J Hogg

doi:10.12688/f1000research.138571.1

The genome sequence of the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog ( Taudactylus pleione)

F1000Res. 2023 Nov 16:12:845. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.138571.1. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Katherine A Farquharson^{1

2}, Elspeth A McLennan², Katherine Belov^{1

2}, Carolyn J Hogg^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ The University of Sydney, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.
² School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.

Abstract

The Kroombit tinkerfrog ( Taudactylus pleione) is a stream-dwelling amphibian of the Myobatrachidae family. It is listed as Critically Endangered and is at high risk of extinction due to chytridiomycosis. Here, we provide the first genome assembly of the evolutionarily distinct Taudactylus genus. We sequenced PacBio HiFi reads to assemble a high-quality long-read genome and identified the mitochondrial genome. We also generated a global transcriptome from a tadpole to improve gene annotation. The genome was 5.52 Gb in length and consisted of 4,196 contigs with a contig N50 of 8.853 Mb and an L50 of 153. This study provides the first genomic resources for the Kroombit tinkerfrog to assist in future phylogenetic, environmental DNA, conservation breeding, and disease susceptibility studies.

Keywords: Anuran; Myobatrachidae; genome assembly; mitogenome; reference genome; transcriptome assembly.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anura*
Genome, Mitochondrial* / genetics
Genomics
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Phylogeny

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (CE200100012); the NCRIS supported Bioplatforms Australia Threatened Species Initiative; the Australian Federal Government Bushfire Recovery Scheme (ERF-WRR2-020).