Genome Survey of 10 Avian Species for the Biodiversity Assessments

With the rapid development of genome analyses and decrease in cost, genomic approaches have become available for the non-model, wild species of which genetic or genomic resources and informations are very limited. As a first step to understand genetic and genomic structures for conservation of endangered wild species, we have conducted genome survey for 10 avian species. More than 20X genomic sequences were used to estimate genome size and complexity. The genome size was rather constant ranged from 1.0~1.4 Gb across the taxa with GC contents 39.7±0.6%. K-mer estimation graph suggested genetic homogeneity. Mitochondrial genomes were assembled from genomic sequences, of which size was 16,939±473 bp having typical mitochondrial gene contents and order. Repetitive sequences comprised 8.0±3.7% of the total genome with the higher frequency of retrotransposons and simple sequence repeats rather than DNA transposons. These data will be highly valuable for further development of molecular markers determining genetic diversities among and within populations and finding functional genes characteristic of each species.