1Department of Public Health and Health Promotion, College of Allied Health Sciences, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Samut Songkhram, Thailand, 750008
*Email: tanawat.ch@ssru.ac.th (corresponding author)
Online Published on 18 February, 2026.
Anopheles baimaii, a primary vector of human malaria in Southeast Asia's forested regions, including Thailand, plays a pivotal role in pathogen transmission. The lack of a reference genome for An. baimaii limits our comprehensive understanding of its biology. This study presents the first genome assembly for An. baimaii, consisting of 1,098,224 contigs and exhibiting a GC content of 46.4%. k-mer analysis estimates the genome size at 443 megabases (Mb), a finding corroborated by BLAST results that align the lengths of the top five contigs with those of other Anopheles spp., as verified by comparison with genomes in the NCBI NT database. Validation of the assembly through Illumina read mapping achieved a 94.78% mapping rate but revealed a low average mapping depth of 47.44. Furthermore, BUSCO analysis indicated a low degree of completeness, with only 23.92% of BUSCOs completed. Despite these challenges, this draft genome assembly provides a crucial reference for An. baimaii and lays the groundwork for future molecular biology research and malaria control strategies.
Anopheles baimaii, Thailand, Genome assembly, Malaria vector, Malaria, Mosquito-borne disease, K-mer, Blast, Mapping depth, BUSCO analysis
