Chromosome-level assembly and annotation of the blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, an aquaculture species for hybrid catfish reproduction, epigenetics, and heterosis studies.

We reported the first high-quality, chromosome-level assembly of the blue catfish genome, which provides the necessary genomic tool kit for transcriptome and methylome analysis, SNP discovery and marker-assisted selection, gene editing and genome engineering, and reproductive enhancement of the blue catfish and hybrid catfish.