A chromosome-level genome assembly of the mountain lion, Puma concolor

Megan A Supple; Merly Escalona; Nicolas Alexandre; Michael R Buchalski; Seth P D Riley; Justin A Dellinger; T Winston Vickers; Ruta Sahasrabudhe; Oanh Nguyen; Colin W Fairbairn; William E Seligmann; Christopher C Wilmers; Beth Shapiro

doi:10.1093/jhered/esae063

A chromosome-level genome assembly of the mountain lion, Puma concolor

J Hered. 2024 Nov 7:esae063. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esae063. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
² Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
³ Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
⁴ Wildlife Genetics Research Unit, Wildlife Health Laboratory, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, USA.
⁵ Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.
⁶ Large Carnivore Section, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Lander, WY, USA.
⁷ Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
⁸ DNA Technologies and Expression Analysis Core Laboratory, Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁹ Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

PMID: 39506490
DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esae063

Abstract

Mountain lions, Puma concolor, are widespread and adaptable carnivores. However, due to their large home ranges and long distance dispersals, they are strongly impacted by habitat fragmentation, which results in small and isolated populations. Genomic analyses play an important role in understanding and predicting the impacts of increased isolation of populations, such as decreased genetic diversity and increased levels of inbreeding. Here we report a high-quality, chromosome-level reference genome of P. concolor that was generated as part of the California Conservation Genomics Project. The primary assembly has a total length of 2.5 Gb contained in 258 scaffolds, a contig N50 of 42.3 Mb, a scaffold N50 of 149.8 Mb, and a BUSCO completeness score of 95%. This P. concolor genome assembly will provide an important resource for genomic analyses that aid decision makers in managing the species in fragmented landscapes.

Keywords: CCGP; California Conservation Genomics Project; Conservation Genomics; Wildlife Management; felidae.