Dear Colleagues, my co-authors and I are pleased to announce that our following paper is now available online on BioRxiv : High quality whole genome sequence of an abundant Holarctic odontocete, the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Marijke Autenrieth, Stefanie Hartmann, Ljerka Lah, Anna Roos, Alice Dennis, Ralph Tiedemann doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/246173 <https://doi.org/10.1101/246173> This Whole Genome Shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank underthe accession PKGA00000000. The version described in this paper is versionPKGA01000000. The draft annotation is deposited to Dryad (doi:10.5061/dryad.vr021gq). The paper is available online here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/19/246173 Abstract: The harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is a highly mobile cetacean found in waters across the Northern hemisphere. It occurs in coastal water and inhabits water basins that vary broadly in salinity, temperature, and food availability. These diverse habitats could drive differentiation among populations. Here we report the first harbour porpoise genome, assembled de novo from a Swedish Kattegat individual. The genome is one of the most complete cetacean genomes currently available, with a total size of 2.7 Gb and 50% of the total length found in just 34 scaffolds. Using the largest 122 scaffolds, we were able to validate a high level of homology to the chromosome-level genome assembly of the closest related species for which such resource was available, the domestic cattle (Bos taurus). The draft annotation comprises 22,154 predicted gene models, which we further annotated through matches to the NCBI nucleotide database, GO categorization, and motif prediction. To infer the adaptive abilities of this species, as well as their population history, we performed a Bayesian skyline analysis, and produced results that are concordant with the demographic history of this species, including expansion and fragmentation events. Overall, this genome assembly, together with the draft annotation, represents a crucial addition to the limited genetic markers currently available for the study of porpoises and Phocoenidae conservation, phylogeny, and evolution. Kind regards, Marijke Autenrieth -- Marijke Autenrieth, M.Sc. PhD student phone: 0049-(0)-331-977-5586 mobile: 0049-176-81308823 email: marauten@uni-potsdam.de web: https://mammalsevolve.wordpress.com/ Universität Potsdam Evolutionsbiologie Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25 14476 Golm