Abstract
Spinibarbus caldwelli is an economically important freshwater species within the Cyprinidae family, abundant in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and its adjacent basins. As a promising species suitable for aquaculture in southern China, the lack of genomic resources has hampered the genetic breeding and conservation. Here, we release a chromosome-level genome assembly for S. caldwelli using PacBio HiFi long-reads, Illumina short-reads, and Hi-C sequencing data. The final genome assembly is 1.77 Gb in size, with a contig N50 of 24.27 Mb. Using Hi-C scaffolding, 99.14% of the contigs were successfully anchored to 50 chromosomes, resulting in a scaffold N50 of 35.29 Mb. The final genome assembly shows a BUSCO completeness of 98.27%. The assembled genome contains 49.41% repetitive sequences and 51,505 predicted genes, 90.83% of which have been functionally annotated. This genome provides a genetic basis for S. caldwelli, facilitating the exploration of Cyprinid phylogeny, genetic improvement, and conservation efforts.