Date for: The chromosome-scale genome assembly of the yellowtail clownfish Amphiprion clarkii provides insights into melanic pigmentation of anemonefish

<p><span>Anemonefish are an emerging group of model organisms due to interesting biological traits such as sequential hermaphroditism, social control of size, symbiosis with anemones, and varying pigmentation patterns. In addition to genus-specific traits, the anemonefish <em>Amphiprion</em> <em>clarkii</em> possesses species-specific characteristics such as interspecies co-habitation, high intraspecies color variation, no anemone specificity, and a broad distribution, that have the potential to further our understanding of anemonefish evolutionary history, behavioral strategies, fish-anemone symbiosis, and color pattern evolution. However, despite its position as an emerging model species, the genome of <em>A. clarkii </em>is yet to be published. Here, using PacBio long-read, Illumina short-read and Hi-C chromatin capture technology we generated a high-quality chromosome-scale genome for the anemonefish <em>A. clarkii</em>. The initial assembly consisted of 1840 contigs with an N50 of 1,203,211 bp. These contigs were successfully anchored into 24 chromosomes of 843,582,782 bp and then annotated with 25,050 </span>protein-coding gene models. With the chromosome-scale assembly encompassing 98.7% of conserved actinopterygian genes and the annotation containing 97.0%, the quality and completeness of this <em>A. clarkii</em> genome is the highest amongst all published anemonefish genomes. The publication of this high-quality genome, along with <em>A. clarkii'</em>s many unique traits, position this species as an ideal model organism for addressing scientific questions across a range of disciplines.</p>