Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40167991›Full record

ArticleGigaScience2025

Telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of Electrophorus electricus provides insights into the evolution of electric eels.

Zan Qi, Qun Liu, Haorong Li, Yaolei Zhang, Ziwei Yu, Wenkai Luo, Kun Wang, Yuxin Zhang, Shoupeng Pan, Chao Wang and 5 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in GigaScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors.

Zan QiSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0009-0007-2319-4388
Qun LiuBGI-Qingdao, BGI-Shenzhen, Qingdao 266555, China.ORCID 0000-0002-5772-4929
Haorong LiSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0003-4289-2847
Yaolei ZhangBGI-Qingdao, BGI-Shenzhen, Qingdao 266555, China.ORCID 0000-0003-2131-0254
Ziwei YuSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0009-0009-7284-6551
Wenkai LuoSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0009-0004-3826-819X
Kun WangSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0001-6059-6529
Yuxin ZhangSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0009-0001-7342-4715
Shoupeng PanSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0009-0008-6468-4612
Chao WangSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9336-9725
Hui JiangCollege of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China.ORCID 0009-0008-9028-4997
Qiang QiuSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9874-271X
Wen WangSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0002-7801-2066
Guangyi FanBGI-Qingdao, BGI-Shenzhen, Qingdao 266555, China.ORCID 0000-0001-7365-1590
Yongxin LiSchool of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9555-1387

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China 31900312
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundElectric eels evolved remarkable electric organs that enable them to instantaneously discharge hundreds of volts for predation, defense, and communication. However, the absence of a high-quality reference genome has extremely constrained the studies of electric eels in various aspects.

resultsUsing high-depth, multiplatform sequencing data, we successfully assembled the first telomere-to-telomere high-quality reference genome of Electrophorus electricus, which has a genome size of 833.43 Mb and comprises 26 chromosomes. Multiple evaluations, including N50 statistics (30.38 Mb), BUSCO scores (97.30%), and mapping ratio of short-insert sequencing data (99.91%), demonstrate the high contiguity and completeness of the electric eel genome assembly we obtained. Genome annotation predicted 396.63 Mb repetitive sequences and 20,992 protein-coding genes. Furthermore, evolutionary analyses indicate that Gymnotiformes, which the electric eel belongs to, has a closer relationship with Characiformes than Siluriformes and diverged from Characiformes 95.00 million years ago. Pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent analysis found a sharply decreased trend of the population size of E. electricus over the past few hundred thousand years. Furthermore, many regulatory factors related to neurotransmitters and classical signaling pathways during embryonic development were significantly expanded, potentially contributing to the generation of high-voltage electricity.

conclusionsThis study not only provided the first high-quality telomere-to-telomere reference genome of E. electricus but also greatly enhanced our understanding of electric eels.

Indexed as

ElectrophorusEvolution, MolecularGenomeTelomereAnimalsGenomicsMolecular Sequence AnnotationPhylogenyelectric eelElectrophorus electricusevolutiongenome annotationgenome assemblytelomere-to-telomere

Identifiers

PMID40167991
PMCPMC11959694

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.