A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries

Lucky Tendani Nesengani; Thendo Tshilate; Sinebongo Mdyogolo; Rae Smith; Tracy Masebe; Thomas Raphulu; Acclaim Moila; Abdoallah Sharaf; Sadik Muzemil; Isidore Houaga; Anne Muigai; A Djikeng; Josiah Kuja; Sally Katee; Julian O Osuji; Zahra Mungloo-Dilmohamud; Marietjie Botes; Skhumbuzo Mbizeni; Erich Jarvis; ThankGod Echezona Ebenezer; Mapholi Ntanganedzeni

doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries

Lucky Tendani Nesengani, Thendo Tshilate, Sinebongo Mdyogolo, Rae Smith, Tracy Masebe, Thomas Raphulu, Acclaim Moila, Abdoallah Sharaf, Sadik Muzemil, Isidore Houaga, Anne Muigai, A Djikeng, Josiah Kuja, Sally Katee, Julian O Osuji, Zahra Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Marietjie Botes, Skhumbuzo Mbizeni, Erich Jarvis, ThankGod Echezona EbenezerMapholi Ntanganedzeni

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Nguni sheep (Ovis aries) are indigenous to the Southern Africa region and common within the smallholder and poor resources farming systems. They are well adapted to different agroecological regions. However, limited genomic resources such as high-quality reference genomes have hindered our understanding of its adaptation and establishment of an effective breeding program. To address this, we assembled a chromosomal-level genome of Nguni sheep using a combination of PacBio HiFi reads and Omni-C reads. The genome size was estimated to be 2.9 Gb with a contig/scaffold N50 74 Mb and 99.6 Mb and a genome completeness of 96.1%, as estimated by the Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) program. The final genome encompassed a total of 25,926 protein-coding genes. The findings of this study provide a valuable genomic resource for understanding the adaptability of the Nguni sheep and the establishment of effective breeding programs.

Original language	English
Article number	1193
Pages (from-to)	1-8
Number of pages	8
Journal	Scientific Data
Volume	12
Issue number	1
Early online date	10 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7
Publication status	Published - Dec 2025

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Animals
Genome
Sheep, Domestic/genetics
Sheep/genetics
Chromosomes

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10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

s41597-025-05514-7Final published version, 1.75 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

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Nesengani, L. T., Tshilate, T., Mdyogolo, S., Smith, R., Masebe, T., Raphulu, T., Moila, A., Sharaf, A., Muzemil, S., Houaga, I., Muigai, A., Djikeng, A., Kuja, J., Katee, S., Osuji, J. O., Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Z., Botes, M., Mbizeni, S., Jarvis, E., ... Ntanganedzeni, M. (2025). A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries. Scientific Data, 12(1), 1-8. Article 1193. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

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abstract = "Nguni sheep (Ovis aries) are indigenous to the Southern Africa region and common within the smallholder and poor resources farming systems. They are well adapted to different agroecological regions. However, limited genomic resources such as high-quality reference genomes have hindered our understanding of its adaptation and establishment of an effective breeding program. To address this, we assembled a chromosomal-level genome of Nguni sheep using a combination of PacBio HiFi reads and Omni-C reads. The genome size was estimated to be 2.9 Gb with a contig/scaffold N50 74 Mb and 99.6 Mb and a genome completeness of 96.1\%, as estimated by the Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) program. The final genome encompassed a total of 25,926 protein-coding genes. The findings of this study provide a valuable genomic resource for understanding the adaptability of the Nguni sheep and the establishment of effective breeding programs.",

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doi = "10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7",

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Nesengani, LT, Tshilate, T, Mdyogolo, S, Smith, R, Masebe, T, Raphulu, T, Moila, A, Sharaf, A, Muzemil, S, Houaga, I, Muigai, A, Djikeng, A, Kuja, J, Katee, S, Osuji, JO, Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Z, Botes, M, Mbizeni, S, Jarvis, E, Ebenezer, TE & Ntanganedzeni, M 2025, 'A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries', Scientific Data, vol. 12, no. 1, 1193, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

TY - JOUR

T1 - A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries

AU - Nesengani, Lucky Tendani

AU - Tshilate, Thendo

AU - Mdyogolo, Sinebongo

AU - Smith, Rae

AU - Masebe, Tracy

AU - Raphulu, Thomas

AU - Moila, Acclaim

AU - Sharaf, Abdoallah

AU - Muzemil, Sadik

AU - Houaga, Isidore

AU - Muigai, Anne

AU - Djikeng, A

AU - Kuja, Josiah

AU - Katee, Sally

AU - Osuji, Julian O

AU - Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Zahra

AU - Botes, Marietjie

AU - Mbizeni, Skhumbuzo

AU - Jarvis, Erich

AU - Ebenezer, ThankGod Echezona

AU - Ntanganedzeni, Mapholi

PY - 2025/12

Y1 - 2025/12

N2 - Nguni sheep (Ovis aries) are indigenous to the Southern Africa region and common within the smallholder and poor resources farming systems. They are well adapted to different agroecological regions. However, limited genomic resources such as high-quality reference genomes have hindered our understanding of its adaptation and establishment of an effective breeding program. To address this, we assembled a chromosomal-level genome of Nguni sheep using a combination of PacBio HiFi reads and Omni-C reads. The genome size was estimated to be 2.9 Gb with a contig/scaffold N50 74 Mb and 99.6 Mb and a genome completeness of 96.1%, as estimated by the Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) program. The final genome encompassed a total of 25,926 protein-coding genes. The findings of this study provide a valuable genomic resource for understanding the adaptability of the Nguni sheep and the establishment of effective breeding programs.

AB - Nguni sheep (Ovis aries) are indigenous to the Southern Africa region and common within the smallholder and poor resources farming systems. They are well adapted to different agroecological regions. However, limited genomic resources such as high-quality reference genomes have hindered our understanding of its adaptation and establishment of an effective breeding program. To address this, we assembled a chromosomal-level genome of Nguni sheep using a combination of PacBio HiFi reads and Omni-C reads. The genome size was estimated to be 2.9 Gb with a contig/scaffold N50 74 Mb and 99.6 Mb and a genome completeness of 96.1%, as estimated by the Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) program. The final genome encompassed a total of 25,926 protein-coding genes. The findings of this study provide a valuable genomic resource for understanding the adaptability of the Nguni sheep and the establishment of effective breeding programs.

KW - Animals

KW - Genome

KW - Sheep, Domestic/genetics

KW - Sheep/genetics

KW - Chromosomes

U2 - 10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

DO - 10.1038/s41597-025-05514-7

M3 - Article

C2 - 40640211

SN - 2052-4463

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 8

JO - Scientific Data

JF - Scientific Data

IS - 1

M1 - 1193

ER -

A chromosomal level genome assembly of Nguni Sheep, Ovis aries

Abstract

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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