The Atlantic salmon louse genome assembly (LSalAtl2s) has unfortunately been retired from Ensembl Metazoa Release 57. We think this is a slightly unfortunate decision because 1. Many are still using the LSalAtl2s assembly and the genes, as it has been around for over ten year 2. The Atlantic and Pacific versions of the genome belong to distinct sub-species.

Anyway, the genome and annotation are still available via the archived version of ENSEMBL Metazoa Release 56 and of course through LiceBase. All Cross-reference links have been updated.

Sequencing technology, especially for long-read sequencing has massively advanced since the first assembly came out. Today, with a fraction of the funding used for LSalAtl2s we would likely be able to generate a high-quality haplotype-resolved (precisely capturing the states of each chromosome pair) telomere-to-telomere assembly.

The time may be right for sequencing the Atlantic salmon louse genome again. If you are interested in creating a new genome sequence either by contributing time or funding or if you need bioinformatics support for your analyses, please contact us.