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Genome Assemblies Released for 73 Anseriformes Species

Large mixed wintering flock of ducks, geese and swans at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge
Research · Genetics & genomics

A data paper published on 27 January 2026 reported genome assemblies for 73 species of Anseriformes, the order that includes ducks, geese, swans, whistling-ducks and their relatives. Each assembly was based on tissue from a single wild-collected museum specimen, giving the dataset a direct link between the sequence data and a preserved voucher.

Short-read genome assemblies tied to museum specimens

DNA from the museum tissues was sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq platform as paired-end 2 × 150-base-pair reads and assembled into short-read whole-genome resources. The dataset spans a broad range of ducks, geese, swans, whistling-ducks, mergansers, eiders and shelducks, with material supplied by eight natural-history museums.

A traceable genomic dataset

For every species, the paper reports the genome accession together with the museum voucher used for sequencing. The resource therefore does more than provide 73 genome assemblies: each one can be traced back to a specific preserved specimen. The paper does not present a comparative evolutionary analysis of the species; its main result is the release and documentation of the genomic dataset itself.

Sources and image credit

  1. Griffith, E., & Pirro, S. (2026). The complete genome sequences of 73 species of Anseriformes (Aves, Chordata). Biodiversity Genomes.Primary data paper. Published 27 January 2026.

Image: Allie Stewart / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — mixed wintering flock of ducks, geese and swans at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina, 31 January 2014; representative image of Anseriformes diversity, not the museum specimens sequenced in the 73-species study. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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Genetics & genomics

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

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