High-quality Genome Assembly and Annotation of the Pacu Piaractus Mesopotamicus: an Aquatic Genetic Resource of South American Aquaculture

Piaractus mesopotamicus, popularly known as pacu, is a freshwater fish native to the Paraguay-Paraná River basin of South America. This species has been historically exploited by commercial fishermen, and nowadays, it is very important for aquaculture in many countries of South America. Good quality meat and excellent adaptability to culture systems are some of its remarkable farming features. To support studies into the biology, genetics, and genomics of the pacu, we have produced the first high-quality chromosome-scale genome for P. mesopotamicus. A 1.28 Gbp genome containing 27 linkage groups has been obtained by integrating HiFi PacBio reads, and SNP linkage map data developed in this work. The proportion of BUSCO genes identified was near 98