The draft genome sequence of mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)

Background Mandrill ( Mandrillus sphinx ) is a primate species which belong to Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family. It is closely related to human, serving as model for some human diseases researches. However, genetic researches and genomic resources of mandrill were limited, especially comparing to other primate species. Findings Here we sequenced 284 Gb data, providing 96-fold coverage (considering the estimate genome size of 2.9 Gb), to construct a reference genome for mandrill. The assembled draft genome was 2.79 Gb with contig N50 of 20.48 Kb and scaffold N50 of 3.56 Mb. We annotated the mandrill genome to find 43.83% repeat elements, as well as 21,906 protein coding genes. We found good quality of the draft genome and gene annotation by BUSCO analysis which revealed 98% coverage of the BUSCOs. Conclusions We established the first draft genome sequence of mandrill, which is valuable resource for future evolutionary and human diseases studies.