The tiger genome and comparative analysis with lion and snow leopard genomes

This study produced the first reference genome for the tiger and compared it with newly sequenced lion and snow leopard genomes to investigate big cat evolution and adaptation. The authors identified genes associated with carnivory, muscle strength, and metabolism, and detected signatures of high-altitude adaptation in the snow leopard. While primarily a genomics and adaptation paper, it provided foundational genomic resources that later subspecies and phylogenomic analyses relied upon. For taxonomy, the reference assemblies enabled population-level genomic studies that resolved tiger subspecies structure and big cat relationships with far greater power than earlier marker-based work. The paper marks the arrival of the genomic era for Panthera and is frequently cited as the starting point for genome-scale felid systematics and conservation genetics.