title: Animal sample from Pseudorca crassidens (false killer whale) for VGP transcriptome, mPseCra2
organism: Pseudorca crassidens
description: False killer whales are social animals found globally in all tropical and subtropical oceans and generally in deep offshore waters. The false killer whale's entire body is black or dark gray, although lighter areas may occur ventrally (on its underside) between the flippers or on the sides of the head. Fishery interactions are one of the main threats facing this species. False killer whales are known to depredate (take fish and bait off of fishing lines), which can lead to hooking and/or entanglement. This is especially a concern for false killer whales that interact with the Hawai'i longline fishery (NOAA website). The tissue sample was sent to the University of California, San Francisco from Cascadia Research Collective in Hawaii in 2019 in order to establish a cell line. The sampled individual is from the pelagic population offshore of Hawai'i. The sample was cultured and frozen by Matthew Schmitz at UCSF and later provided as part of the Cetacean Genomes Project to generate a high-quality reference for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genomes Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Jennifer Balacco, Giulio Formenti, and Erich D. Jarvis. This assembly is under the limited use G10K embargo policy from the date of submission: https://genome10k.ucsc.edu/data-use-policies/