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98.6% of the White King Pigeon Genome Assembly Was Anchored at Chromosome Level

White King pigeon standing in China
Research · Genetics & genomics

A new chromosome-level reference genome has been assembled from a female White King pigeon, a domestic breed of rock dove (Columba livia) widely used for meat production in China. Published on 18 June 2026 in Scientific Data, the study combined Illumina short reads, PacBio HiFi long reads and Hi-C data, which capture how chromosome regions come into contact inside the cell nucleus. The White King individual was used to build the new reference genome; researchers then resequenced 64 pigeons from six major Chinese market breeds against it to map genetic variation.

98.6% was placed in chromosome-level structures

The final assembly was about 1.09 gigabases (Gb) long, and 98.6% of the sequence was anchored to 29 chromosome-level scaffolds. Hi-C helps researchers work out which assembled DNA fragments belong together and in what order and orientation; about 1.06 Gb could be assigned a defined order and direction. The figure of 29 therefore refers to the chromosome-level structures resolved in this reference assembly.

Millions of variants across six breeds

Using the White King reference, the researchers identified more than 22.68 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — positions where a single DNA base differs among individuals — and about 2.47 million small insertions and deletions across the resequenced pigeons. This produced a large catalogue of genetic variation among Chinese market-pigeon breeds.

The authors present the dataset as a resource for studying genetic diversity and adaptation in domestic pigeons. They also note that such variant data can help reconstruct demographic and domestication history, giving researchers a better basis for examining how long-term artificial selection has shaped the diversity seen among pigeon breeds.

Sources and image credit

  1. Yang, G., Zeng, T., Lu, L., Xu, W., Wu, C., Li, H., Tian, Y., Gu, T., Chen, L., Zong, Y., Chang, Y., & Dong, L. (2026). High-Quality Genome Assembly of the White King Pigeon for Genetic Reference of Chinese Market Pigeon Breeds. Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07220-4Primary open-access data descriptor published 18 June 2026. A 1.09-Gb White King pigeon assembly placed 98.59% of the genome on 29 chromosomes; 64 pigeons from six Chinese market breeds were also analysed for genomic variation.
  2. National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2024). Columba livia breed White King pigeon BioProject PRJNA1122952.Supporting repository record for the White King pigeon sequencing project.

Image: Dinkun Chen / Wikimedia Commons — White King pigeon photographed in China, 6 May 2026; representative image from the study country · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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