The Western Mosquitofish Gambusia affinis is a livebearing fish in the family Poeciliidae. They are native to the southeastern United States but with a global distribution due to widespread human introduction. They are a highly invasive species and able to adapt to new environments rapidly. Gambusia affinis has been used as a model species for a broad range of evolutionary and ecological studies. In addition to the study of invasiveness, the species has been used as a model for convergent evolution, life history, and rapid evolution. We are interested in analyzing patterns of invasion and looking for traits that make some fish species good invaders.
In conjunction with Dovetail Genomics, we have sequenced the genome of Gambusia affinis. In addition to describing the general characteristics of the Gambusia genome, we plan to use this genome to investigate the invasion route of Gambusia affinis from the United States to Asia and to identify genes influenced by selection during these invasions. By contributing a genome assembly for the third major clade in the Poeciliidae family, we expect the assembly will be a valuable resource for scientists to map the genetic architecture of traits of interest and will facilitate studies in diverse fields including comparative genomics.
We are making the data and assemblies publicly available prior to publication, consistent with genomics community guidelines specified in the Bermuda, Fort Lauderdale and Toronto agreements (Nanda & Kowalczuk, 2014). Manuscripts that describe the general characteristics of this genome and assembly and compare it to the genomes of similar fish, as well as using the genome to identify markers of invasion are under preparation and should be submitted within the normal embargo time periods. The citations to manuscripts that describe these data and use them will be posted here when available.
Fair Use: We invite the scientific community to access and make use of this assembly and raw read data that we have produced. Researchers are immediately welcome to use the data and to publish results on individual genes or a few loci (i.e., not chromosomal or genome scale). Consistent with the genomic community guidelines and to avoid duplicated effort, we request that researchers who wish to conduct whole chromosome to whole-genome analyses, prior to publication of our manuscripts, should contact us to determine if their proposed work will overlap with ours. As a matter of courtesy, we further request that anyone using information from this webpage should please cite this webpage and send a brief e-mail to us about your project.
For further information please contact Nicholas Troendle (ntroendle@mnu.edu), Sandra Hoffberg (slh2181@columbia.edu), or Rodney Mauricio (mauricio@uga.edu).
Disclaimer: The opinions, findings, recommendations, and conclusions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies or the University of Georgia, or other employers of any author. Documents and sequences from this server are provided "AS-IS" without any warranty, expressed or implied.
