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Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly of the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus courtoisi, Leiothrichidae)
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  • Published: 20 March 2026

Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly of the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus courtoisi, Leiothrichidae)

  • Yuxuan Ouyang1,2,
  • Lin Yang2,
  • Binbin Cheng3,
  • Chang Xiao1 &
  • …
  • Weiwei Zhang1,2 

Scientific Data , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Abstract

The Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus courtoisi) is a critically endangered species and listed as National First-class Protected Wildlife in China, with a small population size and highly restricted geographic distribution in Jiangxi Province. However, the genetic mechanisms underlying its endangered status remain unclear. In this study, we constructed a chromosome-level reference genome by integrating Illumina short-read, PacBio long-read, and Hi-C chromatin interaction data. The final assembled genome spans 1.255 Gb, with 1.158 Gb (92.32%) of the sequences anchored onto 39 pseudochromosomes. A total of 16,807 protein-coding genes were predicted, among which 15,574 genes (92.7%) were functionally annotated. This high-quality genome assembly provides a valuable genomic resource for future genetic studies and conservation efforts for the Blue-crowned Laughingthrush.

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Data availability

The sequencing reads generated in this study, including genome survey, Hi-C, and RNA-Seq/Iso-Seq data, have been deposited in the Genome Sequence Archive of the National Genomics Data Center under BioProject accession number CRA030745. The chromosome-level genome assembly is available in the NCBI GenBank database under BioProject accession PRJNA1406269 and Assembly accession GCA\_054913815.1.

Code availability

No custom code was generated for the data curation or validation in this study. All data preprocessing was conducted using Novogene’s proprietary and standardized bioinformatics pipelines (including the pk_qc.v2 and redup.v2 modules). The specific algorithms and implementation details of these modules are confidential and proprietary to Novogene.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Minling Li, Jie Liu, Jie Sun, Xinghe Gao, Dandan Wang, Jutao He, Hangmin Gu, and Zhiming Cao for their support and assistance during fieldwork, and we are grateful to Qiang Yang and Yongtao Xu for their guidance on data analysis. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32360251).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Conservation and Research Center for the Blue-crowned Laughingthrush, NanChang, China

    Yuxuan Ouyang, Chang Xiao & Weiwei Zhang

  2. Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology, Nanchang, China

    Yuxuan Ouyang, Lin Yang & Weiwei Zhang

  3. Shaanxi Yellow River Wetland Provincial Nature Reserve Management Office, Weinan, Shaanxi, 714000, China

    Binbin Cheng

Authors
  1. Yuxuan Ouyang
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  2. Lin Yang
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  3. Binbin Cheng
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  4. Chang Xiao
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  5. Weiwei Zhang
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Contributions

Ouyang Yuxuan was responsible for drafting the manuscript, Zhang Weiwei and Yang Lin revised it and provided guidance, and Cheng Binbin and Xiao Chang handled sample collection and sequencing data organization.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuxuan Ouyang or Weiwei Zhang.

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Ouyang, Y., Yang, L., Cheng, B. et al. Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly of the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus courtoisi, Leiothrichidae). Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06951-8

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  • Received: 10 October 2025

  • Accepted: 23 February 2026

  • Published: 20 March 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06951-8

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