De Novo Assembly and Annotation of Asiatic Lion (Panthera Leo Persica) Genome

The document reports the first draft genome assembly of an Asiatic lion named Atul, along with the transcriptomes of five Asiatic lion individuals. The study found that the Asiatic lion has one of the lowest levels of genomic diversity, emphasizing the importance of its conservation. The genome is approximately 2.3 Gb in size, with 62X coverage, and contains 20,543 protein-coding genes. Additionally, 2.66% of the genome consists of simple sequence repeats (SSRs), and 0.4% has segmental duplications. Comparative analysis with other felids and mammals helped to clarify the evolutionary position of the Asiatic lion. The study identified unique genetic elements in the Asiatic lion, including 6,295 single copy orthologs, 4 co-orthologs, 21 paralogs, and 8,024 other orthologs. It also highlighted genes specifically expressed in male lions and found expansions in certain protein families such as Cysteine Dioxygenase-I (CDO-I), which is involved in taurine biosynthesis, and Wilm’s tumor-associated protein (WT1), which is associated with male-sex determination. The expansion of the translation machinery-associated protein 7 (TMA7) family, which is involved in hair follicle morphogenesis, may be linked to the development of the lion's mane.