ERGA-BGE reference genome of the Eurasian Woodcock ( Scolopax rusticola), a game bird species with isolated populations of conservation interest

List of Authors

  1. Joan Ferrer Obiol ,  
  2. Diego Rubolini ,  
  3. Josephine R. Paris ,  
  4. Francesco Giannelli
    ,  
  5. David Gonçalves ,  
  6. Pedro Andrade
    ,  
  7. Beneharo Rodríguez ,  
  8. Alessandro Tedeschi
    ,  
  9. Michele Sorrenti
    ,  
  10. Chiara Natali ,  
  11. Marcella Sozzoni
    ,  
  12. Astrid Böhne ,  
  13. Rita Monteiro ,  
  14. Thomas Marcussen ,  
  15. Torsten H. Struck ,  
  16. Rebekah A. Oomen ,  
  17. Maria Angela Diroma
    ,  
  18. Claudio Ciofi
    ,  
  19. Caroline Howard ,  
  20. Mark Blaxter
    ,  
  21. Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Management: Samples and Laboratory Team
    ,  
  22. Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: Sequencing Operations
    ,  
  23. Chiara Bortoluzzi
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Abstract

The reference genome of the Eurasian Woodcock ( Scolopax rusticola) is an important resource to investigate population structure across the wide breeding range of this iconic game species and the conservation status of specific management units, such as the isolated Macaronesian populations. The genome sequence was assembled into 45 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules and 2 sex chromosomes (W and Z). This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 1.2 Gb, composed of 1,613 contigs and 935 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 5.9 Mb and 34.2 Mb, respectively.

Corresponding author
Joan Ferrer Obiol
0000-0002-1184-5434
Grant information

Biodiversity Genomics Europe (Grant no. 101059492) is funded by Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment call (REA.B.3); co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract numbers 22.00173 and 24.00054; and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme; the Eurasian woodcock population genomics collaboration was partly supported by the PRIN funding scheme of the Italian Ministry for University and Research (grant 20178T2PSW awarded to DR).

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright
© 2026 Joan Ferrer Obiol (Corresponding Author, Co-Author); Diego Rubolini (Co-Author); Josephine R. Paris (Co-Author); Francesco Giannelli (Co-Author); David Gonçalves (Co-Author); Pedro Andrade (Co-Author); Beneharo Rodríguez (Co-Author); Alessandro Tedeschi (Co-Author); Michele Sorrenti (Co-Author); Chiara Natali (Co-Author); Marcella Sozzoni (Co-Author); Astrid Böhne (Co-Author); Rita Monteiro (Co-Author); Thomas Marcussen (Co-Author); Torsten H. Struck (Co-Author); Rebekah A. Oomen (Co-Author); Maria Angela Diroma (Co-Author); Claudio Ciofi (Co-Author); Caroline Howard (Co-Author); Mark Blaxter (Co-Author); Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Management: Samples and Laboratory Team (Co-Author); Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: Sequencing Operations (Co-Author); Chiara Bortoluzzi (Co-Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First version published
Latest version published
Revised

Amendment

In this revised version of the genome report we addressed the two minor comments of reviewer 1, concerning the sequencing of additional samples capturing a broader genetic diversity and the clarification of terms used in the report, such as contig N50 and scaffold N50.

Comments

Authors & roles

Joan Ferrer Obiol

Dipartimento di Scienze e Politiche Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, I-20133, Italy

Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, CO 80523, USA

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1184-5434

Diego Rubolini

Dipartimento di Scienze e Politiche Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, I-20133, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-2703-5783

Josephine R. Paris

Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, CO 80523, USA

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-6868-3416

Francesco Giannelli

Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

David Gonçalves

CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Porto District, Portugal

BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal

Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1444-377X

Pedro Andrade

CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Porto District, Portugal

BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Beneharo Rodríguez

Buenavista del Norte, Canary Islands’ Ornithology and Natural History Group, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38480, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-9946-3421

Alessandro Tedeschi

Associazione 'Amici di Scolopax', Via Roma 57, Mugnano del Cardinale (AV), I-83027, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Michele Sorrenti

Federazione Italiana della caccia, Via Garigliano 57, Ufficio Studi e Ricerche Faunistiche e Agro-Ambientali, Roma, I-00198, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Chiara Natali

Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Tuscany, I-50019, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-0293-171X

Marcella Sozzoni

Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Tuscany, I-50019, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Astrid Böhne

Museum Koenig Bonn, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Bonn, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1284-3115

Rita Monteiro

Museum Koenig Bonn, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Bonn, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1374-4474

Thomas Marcussen

University of Oslo Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

University of Oslo, O. Box 1172, Blindern, Natural History Museum, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1960-9508

Torsten H. Struck

University of Oslo, O. Box 1172, Blindern, Natural History Museum, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-3280-6239

Rebekah A. Oomen

University of Oslo Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

University of Oslo, O. Box 1172, Blindern, Natural History Museum, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Tjärnö Marine Laboratory, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

University of Agder, Centre for Coastal Research, Kristiansand, Norway

Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Saint John, Canada

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-2094-5592

Maria Angela Diroma

Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Tuscany, I-50019, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Claudio Ciofi

Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Tuscany, I-50019, Italy

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Caroline Howard

Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, England, CB10 1SA, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1739-6569

Mark Blaxter

Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, England, CB10 1SA, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Management: Samples and Laboratory Team

Roles
Co-Author

Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: Sequencing Operations

Roles
Co-Author

Chiara Bortoluzzi

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Vaud, 1015, Switzerland

Roles
Co-Author, Visualization, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-6589-6635

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