Equus asinus isolate:a 6-month-old male donkey | cultivar:DeZhou donkey Genome sequencing
The objective of this project was to achieve telomere-to-telomere (T2T) level genome assemblies for donkeys.For the genome assembly, peripheral blood samples of a male donkey from Dezhou donkey breed were collected at the Shandong Dong'e Black Donkey Breeding Center. HiFi and ONT were utilized for initial assembly, and Pore-C data were employed for pseudochromosome construction. To fill the gap, the ONT reads more than 50K were mapped to the BAM files of the pseudochromosomes. Then, the genome assembly was polished with HiFi reads and the NGS short reads. Finally, a gap-free, complete genome assembly of all chromosomes was constructed for donkeys, with an average quality value.The donkey genome is characterized by features that complicate the assembly of highly complicated centromeric regions and more acrocentric chromosomes. The present study's T2T assembly resolved previously uncharacterized genomic regions, with a particular emphasis on centromeres, telomeres, and the Y chromosome. Thus, providing new insights into the structure and function of these critical areas.