The genome sequence of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Rebekah A Oomen^{1

2

3

4}, Alessia Cariani⁵, Louise Chavarie⁶, Agostino Leone^{5

7

8}, Adriana Vella⁹, Noel Vella⁹, Gustav Hellström¹⁰, Tomas Brodin¹⁰, Andreas Sundelöf^{10

11}, Mark Blaxter¹², Ann M Mc Cartney^{13

14}, Giulio Formenti¹⁵, Alice Mouton¹⁶, Fausto Tinti⁵, Fulvio Garibaldi¹⁷, Petter Lundberg¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
² University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Västra Götaland County, Sweden.
³ Centre for Coastal Research, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁴ University of Oslo Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Department of Biological, Geological & Environmental Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
⁶ Faculty of Environmental Science and Nature Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
⁷ Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DiSTeM), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
⁸ National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
⁹ Department of Biology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
¹⁰ Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
¹¹ Department of Aquatic Resources, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
¹² Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, England, UK.
¹³ Genomics Institute, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
¹⁴ School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.
¹⁵ The Vertebrate Genome Laboratory, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA.
¹⁶ Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement (Arlon Campus Environnement), SEED, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
¹⁷ Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy.

PMID: 40556665
PMCID: PMC12186022
DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23971.1

The genome sequence of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Rebekah A Oomen et al. Wellcome Open Res. 2025.

. 2025 Mar 27:10:163.

doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23971.1. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
² University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Västra Götaland County, Sweden.
³ Centre for Coastal Research, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁴ University of Oslo Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Department of Biological, Geological & Environmental Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
⁶ Faculty of Environmental Science and Nature Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
⁷ Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DiSTeM), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
⁸ National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
⁹ Department of Biology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
¹⁰ Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
¹¹ Department of Aquatic Resources, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
¹² Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, England, UK.
¹³ Genomics Institute, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
¹⁴ School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.
¹⁵ The Vertebrate Genome Laboratory, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA.
¹⁶ Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement (Arlon Campus Environnement), SEED, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
¹⁷ Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy.

PMID: 40556665
PMCID: PMC12186022
DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23971.1

Abstract

We present a genome assembly from a specimen of Thunnus thynnus (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna; Chordata; Actinopteri; Scombriformes; Scombridae). The genome sequence has a total length of 799.05 megabases. Most of the assembly (99.17%) is scaffolded into 24 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled, with a length of 16.53 kilobases. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 23,266 protein-coding genes.

Keywords: Atlantic Bluefin Tuna; Scombriformes; Thunnus thynnus; chromosomal; genome sequence.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

**Figure 1.**
( a) Young-of-the-year (YOY) individual measuring approximately 25–30 cm, collected in September 2022 in the Western Mediterranean (Ligurian Sea, Italy). Photograph by Fulvio Garibaldi. ( b) YOY individuals measuring approximately 30 cm, collected in September 2013 in the Central Mediterranean (western Ionian Sea, Italy). Photograph by Agostino Leone.

**Figure 2.. Genome assembly of *Thunnus thynnus*, fThuThy2.1: metrics.**
The BlobToolKit snail plot provides an overview of assembly metrics and BUSCO gene completeness. The circumference represents the length of the whole genome sequence, and the main plot is divided into 1,000 bins around the circumference. The outermost blue tracks display the distribution of GC, AT, and N percentages across the bins. Scaffolds are arranged clockwise from longest to shortest and are depicted in dark grey. The longest scaffold is indicated by the red arc, and the deeper orange and pale orange arcs represent the N50 and N90 lengths. A light grey spiral at the centre shows the cumulative scaffold count on a logarithmic scale. A summary of complete, fragmented, duplicated, and missing BUSCO genes in the actinopterygii_odb10 set is presented at the top right. An interactive version of this figure is available at https://blobtoolkit.genomehubs.org/view/GCA_963924715.1/dataset/GCA_963924715.1/snail.

**Figure 3.. Genome assembly of *Thunnus thynnus*, fThuThy2.1: BlobToolKit GC-coverage plot.**
Blob plot showing sequence coverage (vertical axis) and GC content (horizontal axis). The circles represent scaffolds, with the size proportional to scaffold length and the colour representing phylum membership. The histograms along the axes display the total length of sequences distributed across different levels of coverage and GC content. An interactive version of this figure is available at https://blobtoolkit.genomehubs.org/view/GCA_963924715.1/dataset/GCA_963924715.1/blob.

**Figure 4.. Genome assembly of *Thunnus thynnus,* fThuThy2.1: BlobToolKit cumulative sequence plot.**
The grey line shows cumulative length for all scaffolds. Coloured lines show cumulative lengths of scaffolds assigned to each phylum using the buscogenes taxrule. An interactive version of this figure is available at https://blobtoolkit.genomehubs.org/view/GCA_963924715.1/dataset/GCA_963924715.1/cumulative.

**Figure 5.. Genome assembly of *Thunnus thynnus:* Hi-C contact map of the fThuThy2.1 assembly, visualised using HiGlass.**
Chromosomes are shown in order of size from left to right and top to bottom. An interactive version of this figure may be viewed at https://genome-note-higlass.tol.sanger.ac.uk/l/?d=CnETE950TKi3HPqRsxNUKg.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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The genome sequence of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Affiliations

The genome sequence of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

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References

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