Abstract
Airbreathing catfish are stenohaline freshwater fish capable of withstanding various environmental conditions and farming practices, including breathing atmospheric oxygen. This unique ability has enabled them to thrive in semi-terrestrial habitats. However, the genomic mechanisms underlying their adaptation to adverse ecological environments remain largely unexplored, primarily due to the limited availability of high-quality genomic resources. Here, we present a haplotype-resolved and near telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome assembly of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), utilizing Oxford Nanopore, PacBio HiFi, Illumina and Hi-C sequencing technologies. The primary assembly spans 969.62 Mb with only 47 contigs, achieving a contig N50 of 33.71 Mb. Terminal telomeric signals were detected in 22 of 47 contigs, suggesting T2T assembled chromosomes. BUSCO analysis confirmed gene space completeness of 99% against the Actinopterygii dataset, highlighting the high quality of the assembly. Genome annotation identified 25,655 protein-coding genes and estimated 43.94% genome-wide repetitive elements. This data provides valuable genomic resources to advance aquaculture practices and to explore the genomic underpinnings of the ecological resilience of airbreathing catfish and related teleosts.