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Darwin Tree of Life Released a Chromosome-level Common Whitethroat Genome Assembly

Common Whitethroat in Niederweimar, Germany
Research · Genetics & genomics

Darwin Tree of Life registered two genome assemblies for the common whitethroat (Curruca communis) on 26 July 2026. Both come from the same adult bird collected at Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset, United Kingdom, on 30 April 2025.

A diploid bird has two copies of each chromosome, one inherited from each parent. The two assemblies keep these inherited sequence versions largely separate. Haplotype 1, GCA_987195945.1, is assembled at chromosome level, while haplotype 2, GCA_987196005.1, is currently at scaffold level, where larger sequence blocks have not yet been organised into complete chromosomes. Keeping the haplotypes separate preserves genetic differences that can be blurred in a single consensus genome.

Both assemblies sit within a wider Darwin Tree of Life project that also contains genomic and transcriptomic sequencing data used for assembly and annotation.

This is a new reference resource rather than a study reporting a biological effect. It gives researchers a chromosome-scale genome for the common whitethroat that can support future work on genetic variation, genome structure, gene annotation and comparisons with related warblers.

Sources and image credit

  1. Wellcome Sanger Institute. (2026). Curruca communis (whitethroat) genome assembly, bSylCom1 haplotype 1.Primary BioProject registered 26 July 2026. Haplotype 1 is assembly GCA_987195945.1 at chromosome level and is linked to BioSample SAMEA118680312.
  2. Wellcome Sanger Institute. (2026). Curruca communis (whitethroat) genome assembly, bSylCom1 haplotype 2.Primary BioProject registered 26 July 2026. Haplotype 2 is assembly GCA_987196005.1 at scaffold level and comes from the same BioSample.
  3. NCBI BioSample SAMEA118680312: 115185-tol.Official sample record: adult Curruca communis collected at Portland Bird Observatory, Dorset, United Kingdom, on 30 April 2025.

Image: Common Whitethroat (Curruca communis) at Niederweimar, Germany, 4 May 2014. Photo: Andreas Trepte / www.avi-fauna.info / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.5. Representative species image; not the individual used for the genome assemblies. · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Source

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