Manta and devil ray genome assemblies uncover signatures of pelagic adaptation

Chromosome-level genomes for Mobula hypostoma (3.5 Gb; contig N50 23.3 Mb) and Mobula yarae (4.0 Gb; contig N50 7.3 Mb) reveal over 1.5 million structural rearrangements along the ancestral mobulid lineage.

• Why it matters: Mobulids are highly adapted to pelagic life, but the genetic changes behind their open-ocean innovations remain poorly defined.
• What they did: Using chromatin conformation capture plus PacBio HiFi and Nanopore long reads, the study built reference genomes and used Progressive Cactus whole-genome alignment with benthic batoid outgroups to map structural variation.
• The result: Mobulid-specific deletions are linked to neurogenesis pathways for craniofacial patterning, including deletions overlapping putative promoter sequences of craniofacial and roof of mouth development genes, enabling comparative and functional studies in Chondrichthyes.